"Egyptian Women have been writing short stories since the 1890s and have made a special contribution to the development of the genre in the twentieth century. This collection presents eight short-story writers whose work began to emerge in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They are exploring new themes, linguistic and symbolic fields, and literary structures. Some are trying to break down traditional genre boundaries, while others are exploring the specifically Arabic and Egyptian heritages of narrative and tradition."--Jacket.