Friendship, the mysterious dynamic that unites people across cultural, gender, and economic barriers, has inspired enduring works of literature from Aristotle to Emerson. In this collection of original essays, twenty women explore the timeless theme with honesty, generosity, and a distinctly contemporary eye.

Carolyn See pays tribute to her best friend from high school and a friendship that has endured for over forty years. Jane Smiley asks, "Can writers have friends?" Phyllis Rose wonders about relations between straight women and gay men. Nancy Willard constructs a friendship tarot. Joyce Carol Oates reopens the unsolved mystery of a friend's death.

Personal, profound, and deeply moving, these pieces also contemplate the related themes of memory, place, and family - experiences as universal as friendship. Between Friends features work by some of the best-known writers in contemporary literature as well as a number of new voices of emerging prominence. Sure to be passed from friend to friend, Between Friends is a celebration, the definitive anthology on the subject.