ABSTRACT

The first fifteen years of the twenty-first century have been momentous ones for the United States. The technological and social changes of the last several years have also opened up new subject matters, new genres of literature, and new ways of thinking about the world and what constitutes literature. By far, the development of the Internet and various digital technologies is the change with the most profound impact on women writers. Faith, spirituality, and doubt also continue to be subjects that inspire writers and readers, as they have done since the earliest days of European colonization in North America. The rise of digital publishing media has led to the restructuring of publishing-related industries as the ease, speed, and relative cheapness of digital publishing have significantly expanded the literary marketplace. The range of opportunities available to women writers and the ostensible lack of restriction on their output have led some critics to suggest that women writers have effectively arrived at last.