Isabel Allende—Excerpt from EVA LUNA by Isabel Allende and translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. © 1988 by Isabel Allende. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Diana Athill—Diana Athill, SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END, Granta Books.
Jane Austen—Public Domain (PD).
Alan Bennett—Excerpt from “Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet” from THE COMPLETE TALKING HEADS by Alan Bennett. © 1998 by Forelake Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Picador.
Anne Brontë—PD.
Charlotte Brontë–PD.
Elizabeth Brontë—PD.
Willa Cather—PD.
Kate Chopin—PD.
Colette—PD.
Junot Díaz—“The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars,” from THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER by Junot Díaz. © 2012 by Junot Díaz. Used by permission of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
Charles Dickens—PD.
Olivia Howard Dunbar—PD.
William Faulkner—Excerpt from AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner. © 1930 and renewed 1958 by William Faulkner. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
F. Scott Fitzgerald—Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald. © 1925 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Copyright renewed 1953 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan. All rights reserved.
Elizabeth Gaskell—PD.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman—PD.
Gail Godwin—Excerpt from EVENINGS AT FIVE by Gail Godwin. © 2003 by Gail Godwin. Used by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Jane Green—From ANOTHER PIECE OF MY HEART by Jane Green. © 2012. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All rights reserved.
Lorraine Hansberry—Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster Publishing Group from TO BE Young, Gifted AND BLACK: LORRAINE HANSBERRY IN HER OWN WORDS by Robert Nemiroff. © 1969 by Robert Nemiroff and Robert Nemiroff as Executor of the Estate of Lorraine Hansberry. All rights reserved.
Ernest Hemingway—Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway. © 1952 by Ernest Hemingway. Copyright renewed 1980 by Mary Hemingway. All rights reserved.
Georgette Heyer—Reprinted with the permission of Sourcebooks, Inc., from FRIDAY’S CHILD by Georgette Heyer. © 2008 by Georgette Heyer. All rights reserved.
Zora Neale Hurston–PD.
James Joyce—PD.
Jamaica Kincaid—Excerpt from THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER by Jamaica Kincaid. © 1996 by Jamaica Kincaid. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Jhumpa Lahiri—Excerpt from THE NAMESAKE by Jhumpa Lahiri. © 2003 by Jhumpa Lahiri. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Wally Lamb—Brief excerpt from p. 47 from I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb. © 1998 by Wally Lamb. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Joan Steinau Lester—Reprinted with the permission of Atria Publishing Group from MAMA’S CHILD by Joan Steinau Lester. © 2013 by Joan Steinau Lester. All rights reserved.
Alison Lurie—© 1998 by Alison Lurie.
Katherine Mansfield—PD.
Alice Munro—Excerpt from RUNAWAY: STORIES by Alice Munro. © 2004 by Alice Munro. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Joyce Carol Oates—Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Flannery O’Connor—Excerpt from “Good Country People” from A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND AND OTHER STORIES by Flannery O’Connor. © 1955 by Flannery O’Connor. © renewed 1983 by Flannery O’Connor. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Dorothy Parker—Excerpt from “The Custard Heart” © 1928, renewed © 1956 by Dorothy Parker. From THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER by Dorothy Parker, edited by Marion Meade. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
Katherine Anne Porter—Excerpt from “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” from PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER: THREE SHORT NOVELS by Katherine Anne Porter. © 1937 by Katherine Anne Porter. © renewed 1965 by Katherine Anne Porter. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Matthew Quick—Excerpt from “An Infinite amount of Days Until My Inevitable Reunion with Nikki” from THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK by Matthew Quick. © 2008 by Matthew Quick. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Nina Sankovitch—TOLSTOY AND THE PURPLE CHAIR by Nina Sankovitch. © 2011 by Nina Sankovitch. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Dani Shapiro—Brief excerpt from p.5 from DEVOTION by Dani Shapiro. © 2010 by Dani Shapiro. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Mary Shelley—PD.
Sandi Kahn Shelton—Excerpt from KISSING GAMES OF THE WORLD: A NOVEL by Sandi Kahn Shelton. © 2008 by Sandi Kahn Shelton. Used by permission of Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Elizabeth Taylor—© The Estate of Elizabeth Taylor. Excerpt from “A Sad Garden” by Elizabeth Taylor from THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES reproduced by kind permission of Virago Press, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group.
Christina Thompson—Christina Thompson, © 2008, COME ON SHORE AND WE WILL KILL AND EAT YOU ALL, Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc.
William Trevor—“Chapter 1,” from MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA by William Trevor, © 1991 by William Trevor. Used by permission of Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
Joanna Trollope—From OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN by Joanna Trollope. © 1998 by Joanna Trollope. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
Gail Tsukiyama—From WOMEN OF THE SILK by Gail Tsukiyama. © 1991. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All rights reserved.
Anne Tyler—Excerpt from SAINT MAYBE by Anne Tyler. © 1991 by Anne Tyler. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Thrity Umrigar—Brief excerpt from p. 9 from FIRST DARLING OF THE MORNING by Thrity Umrigar. © 2008 by Thrity Umrigar. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Helen Wan—From THE PARTNER TRACK by Helen Wan. © 2013. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All rights reserved.
Virginia Woolf—Excerpt from BETWEEN THE ACTS by Virginia Woolf. © 1941 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. © renewed 1969 by Leonard Woolf. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Dan Zevin—Reprinted with the permission of Scribner Publishing Group from DAN GETS A MINIVAN: LIFE AT THE INTERSECTION OF DUDE AND DAD by Dan Zevin. © 2012 by Dan Zevin. All rights reserved.