EBERHARDT PRESS
When Judith Arcana first approached short story author and activist Grace Paley about writing her biography, Paley said no. “She said she didn’t think there should be a book just about her” Arcana writes, “that her life was no big deal, that she didn’t want to be lionized.” Prepared for this response, Arcana told her that, “I wanted to write about her not as exemplary, but as an example: Here’s a woman, she’s a mother, she’s an activist, she’s a writer—and here’s how she does it.”