Scene: Chinese restaurant, Cambridge, Massachusetts, early 1980s, the start of a new academic year. Seated at a large table are seven women in their twenties to forties, all writers and literature scholars, most of whom are just beginning year-long fellowships at the Bunting Institute – the feminist think tank (now known as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study) at Harvard University. Some in the group are old friends; others are meeting for the first time. Everyone is in high spirits. Among those chattering girlishly as spring rolls and won ton arrive:

LRB 27 September 2012 | PDF Download