This conversation, which took place on Grace Paley's birthday,

December 11, 2009, explores how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out

of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights

the everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday

life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist,

passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam

War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her

death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire.

Speakers include: Beatrix Gates, poet and publisher of Grace Paley's first

book of poems; Yvette Christianse, poet and novelist; Ynestra

King, ecofeminist activist and educator, and editor of Dangerous

Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and

Development; Nancy Kricorian, New York-based writer and activist, author

of Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, and coordinator of the New York

City chapter of CODEPINK Women for Peace; Amy Swerdlow, founding member

of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace:

Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s; and Lucila Silva

and Perla Placencia, members

of the Center for Immigrant Families (CIF), an inter-generational,

collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color and

community members in Manhattan Valley. This event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Institute for Research on

Women and Gender (IRWAG).