All human beings spend the first nine months of their lives in their motherâs womb. From the moment of birth, we wrestle with the notion of âmother:â? we love this woman and feel intense connections to her, and yet we inevitably need to separate...

If a novel is indeed grounded in a vision of the world, how do authors who find themselves essentially "groundless", caught in a web of shifting homes, cultural allegiances, and ethnic identities find their unique vision? Paule Marshall and Caryl...