Readers will enjoy many surprises in this latest volume of women’s socially engaged literature. From the unfriendly streets of Miami’s South Beach, to the villages of India and Africa, the poets and writers featured here launch encounters with some of the most emotionally and politically charged subjects in recent history. Included in the collection are stories of forced sterilization in a controversial eugenics program, female genital mutilation in Africa, and the first rumblings of the abortion debate in America. Other works tackle more contemporary problems, like racial profiling, police brutality, homelessness, and terrorist conflicts, exploring in vivid, personal detail the human face of often inhumane acts. In each case, the stories and poems included here challenge not simply what it means to live a feminine existence, but more critically what it means to live in our time.