Unleashed

Literary Nonfiction. Afterword by Vanessa Place. 05/09/04 Now she is blogging. Now she is sitting on the black couch listening to the sirens wail and the rain fall. Now she is thinking of oysters. Now she is wondering why this is worth sharing. Now she is thinking, how decipher what is worth reading? Who is to say? Sifters. She thinks we have become a nation of sifters. So began a three-year experiment in blogging. An experiment begun for many reasons-a way for an expat to keep in touch with fellow Canadian writers and artists, a way to come to terms with the increasing relevance of the internet in literary lives, and a way to figure out why, after decades of gains, women writers are still grossly underrepresented in critical dialogues. 11/27/05 Where, one might ask, are the women? I have my theories. Look to the deletions, the hesitations, the reflective responses...the women are still out there thinking, their voices not quite up for the often bombastic and instantaneous responses. Taking up a public space and voice does something to one's brain. There is no getting away from the space one creates out there--unleashed.