DENA TAYLOR & WILMA CHANDLER at Books Inc. Berkeley

Stories, poems, essays, memoirs from women about life after 80—a time for rest, reflection, doing and learning new things, for sadness, grief, adventure, romance, and activism. It's all here in these pages, told with honesty, wisdom, and humor.

"We hear a lot about aging these days—but rarely from the people who know it best. When a Woman Tells the Truth brings together the poetry, prose, and art of more than eighty women over eighty. Here are poets, professors, Zen buddhists, theater directors, French teachers, jewelry artists, union organizers, midwives, hospice workers, and more. These compelling dispatches from the light of eighty and beyond are by turns loving, funny, heartbreaking, sly, tender, and angry. Through it all, the light of great and small joys shines through, along with the fierce clarity of seeing the present, each day, for what it is." —Kathryn Chetkovich, author of Friendly Fire

Wilma Marcus Chandler is a proud New Yorker, Bennington College alumnae, and theatre arts educator. She is the author of many theater texts published by Smith&Kraus, Inc. Her poetry collection The Night Bridge was published by Hummingbird Press. Over the years she has produced and directed over 100 plays and poetry events in the Monterey Bay Area and continues to work with the performing arts community.

Dena Taylor is the author of Exclamation Points: Collected Poems, the co-author, with her daughter Becky Taylor, of Tell Me the Number before Infinity: The story of a girl with a quirky mind, an eccentric family, and oh yes, a disability (both published by Many Names Press), and the author, editor, or co-editor of several books on women’s issues. A graduate of Rutgers School of Social Work, she is retired from careers in social work and education.