As a writer of novels, short stories, poetry, and journalism, Ellen Gilchrist combines the best of the Southern tradition with a unique voice that speaks to contemporary readers across the land.

With her first collection of short stories, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams (1981), Gilchrist attained widespread critical and popular success; to date she has produced close to twenty books, including Victory over Japan, winner of the American Book Award, and Falling through Space, a compendium of her broadcast journalism for National Public Radio.

That Gilchrist is "a master of portraying the paradox of the independent woman" is the premise of Mary A. McCay's Ellen Gilchrist, the first book-length study of the writer's work. Though Gilchrist disavows feminist labels, McCay argues, she centers on women's experience in salient ways and reflects an intriguing contrast between her stated position and the more liberal terrain of her imagination.

In a detailed introduction, McCay examines autobiographical patterns in the lives of Gilchrist and her characters, including the search for artistic freedom, and explores significant relationships in the writer's life, such as those with the poets James Whitehead and Frank Stanford. McCay also mines common themes in Gilchrist's writings - among them the quest for an articulate self and the conflict between love and independence - and discusses the importance of place, particularly New Orleans, in Gilchrist's works.

Especially informative are in-depth analyses of the poetry and journalism, as well as the short stories and novels, including The Annunciation, Net of Jewels, The Anna Papers, Starcarbon, and Gilchrist's triad of novellas, I Cannot Get You Close Enough.