Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-213) and index.

Introduction / Harold Bloom -- Alice Walker's men : profiles in the quest for love and personal values / Louis H. Pratt -- "All saints should walk away" : the mystical pilgrimage of Meridian / Joseph A. Brown -- Alice Walker : the achievement of the short fiction / Alice Hall Petry -- Coming to voice in Alice Walker's Meridian : speaking out for the revolution / Lynn Pifer -- Alice Walker's redemptive art / Felipe Smith -- Alice Walker's vision of the south in The third life of Grange Copeland / Robert James Butler -- Alice Walker : in praise of maternal heritage / Gail Keating -- Alice Walker's The temple of my familiar as a pastiche / Bonnie Braendlin -- Visual marker's : art and mass media in Alice Walker's Meridian / Deborah E. Barker -- Teaching Alice Walker's "Everyday use" : employing race, class, and gender / Marcia Noe -- Telling a critical story : Alice Walker's In search of our mothers' gardens / Laurie McMillan -- Reanimating the trope of the talking book in Alice Walker's "Strong horse tea" / Deborah Anne Hooker -- Alice Walker chronology.