This literary history focuses on five women writers of the American Southwest - Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott - whose prose and verse appeared from around 1900 through the 1980s. Together, they present a portrait of "writing women" and their responses to the Southwest.

This literary history focuses on five women writers--Mary Austin, Willa Cather, Laura Adams Armer, Peggy Pond Church and Alice Marriott--whose work appeared from around 1900 through the 1980s. All came from or lived and worked in California, Arizona, New Mexico or Oklahoma. The book situates them in their time and place and examines their interactions with landscapes, people, art and history. Their interest in fine arts and native arts and crafts is stressed, as well as their concern for the environment.