Meeting Points is a text that bears out its name of connecting the issues of black women as espoused in their literature. Our historical antecedents of slavery and colonialism present some commonalities that lace the women’s various life experiences. Underneath all this are the cementing platforms of gender and patriarchy. The feminization of poverty puts women in a lower class structure. What this text shows is how women navigate these encumbrances to still eke out a life. The writers do not just present women as victims but show their efforts in harnessing structures for their survival. This is a refreshing phase in women’s writing which now steps away from victimhood to personhood.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
HELEN CHUKWUMA, Ph.D., is a feminist scholar and the first female to be made a Professor at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in 1993. From 1991-92, she was a Fulbright Research Fellow at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. Dr. Chukwuma has written or edited five textbooks and has served as the editor of the Journal of Women’s Studies in Africa. Her academic areas of interest include African literature, oral and written, African fiction, feminist theory in literature, contemporary English and American literature, African and African-American women authors, and women’s studies. Chukwuma’s current research focuses on indigenous African feminism and meeting points in Black women’s literature. Her most recent publication is the book on the work of Chinua Achebe titled Achebe’s Women: Imagism and Power.
    
PRESELFANNIE E. WHITFIELD MCDANIELS, Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor of English at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. She received all degrees in English: B. A. from Jackson State University, M. A. from Mississippi College, Clinton, and Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Her recent publications include articles in International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service-Learning, and Community Literacy, The Researcher: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Journal of Ethnic American Literature, Black Magnolias Literary Journal, a book chapter in Presenting Oprah Winfrey, Her Films, and African American Literature (Tara T. Green, ed.) and a book chapter in Constructing the Literary Self: Race and Gender in Twentieth-Century Literature (Patsy J. Daniels, ed.).

CATEGORY
Literature, Literary Criticism/AFRICA and AFRICAN AMERICA