As White Oleander author Janet Fitch explains in the introduction to Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles, the stories in this collection achieve the ultimate outland status in the point of their creation, which is the edge of the continent ? Los Angeles. ?For Los Angeles writers, the boundariness is taken to the furthest extent ? for what could be more peripheral than serious short stories written in a town known predominantly for its big screens and action figures and silicone-enhanced placticine femmes?? writes Fitch. Some of the women who have contributed to this collection are well-known figures in the literary landscape ? Aimee Bender, Carol Muske Dukes, Lisa Teasely, Rachel Resnick - while others have little publishing experience. All, however, contribute compelling stories that are fresh in their approach, immaculate in their execution. This exciting, unexpected anthology is not a "best of" but rather a gathering of escritoras, a handful of voices singing in Los Angeles at a particular moment in time, their characters walking wide, weird worlds with an ear to the shifty ground.