Collected here for the first time are the voices of such established writers as Margaret Atwood, Myrna Kostash, Sandra Birdsell, Sarah Murphy and Sharon Butala, but also the voices of those appearing in print for the first time such as Yasmin Ladha, Lia Pas and Lea Littlewolfe. From seasoned to youthful, all the writers here wrestle with confusion, dread, anger, fear or doubt. And all discover a wellspring of courage and honesty that allows them to carry on. Whether it's probing the chaos and terror of being shot at, as Sarah Murphy does in "The Night the Thirty-Ought-Six Got Shot through the Ceiling," or it's coming to terms with loss after being widowed twice, as Eunice Scarfe does in "No Time to Die." Wrestling with the Angel celebrates women whose own sense of grace becomes a purity of spirit that reinvigorates their lives.

Editor Caterina Edwards is the author of Whiter Shade of Pale: Becoming Emma and The Lion's Mouth. Her writing also has been widely anthologized in such publications as Getting Here, The Story So Far and More Stories from Western Canada. She has taught literature and writing courses for post-secondary institutions in Canada and lectured on Canadian literature and multiculturalism at universities in Venice, Trieste, Udine and Messina in Italy.

Editor Kay Stewart has taught a variety of courses on writing and modern women essayists, and has been an editor and university professor. She has retired from her position as associate professor of English at the University of Alberta and is now completing a detective novel in collaboration with her husband. They have recently adopted the niece she refers to in her essay "Mother-Love, Mother-Loss" in Wrestling with the Angel.