Penelope

Penelope: Weaving and Unraveling, A Writing and Revising Life is a memoir of the writing life of Penelope Anne Schwartz, from 1974-2014. A nationally acclaimed nonfiction writer, Schwartz uses the Penelope metaphor from mythology to illuminate her growth both as a writer and as a woman. Homer's Penelope is forced to take a suitor when her husband Odysseus is presumed dead on a long sea voyage. She agrees to do so only when she has finished her weaving. Every day she weaves; every night she unravels. Identifying the different threads flashing across her writing loom, Schwartz demonstrates by examples of her work how patterns have emerged and changed, She has organized her work chronologically by her life experiences (rather than in the order it was written). Each selection opens with an Introduction detailing the circumstances, backstory, and in some cases consequences of her writing.