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       INTRODUCTION

       RENÉE WATSON

       We cannot create what we can’t imagine.

      —LUCILLE CLIFTON

      Let’s imagine a world where women are seen as whole beings and not as body parts, quests to be conquered, or damsels to be rescued. Let’s imagine a world where women save their own days, save the world, even.

      Let’s imagine women as hunters.

      I have always been drawn to female characters who chase, pursue, explore, interrogate, rescue. Kill, even. Every good story has a character who desperately wants something. But too often the desires of female characters revolve around clichés—gaining the affection of a man or wanting to be popular at almost any cost.

      But not here. This is a collection of tales that have imagined worlds where women are on the hunt, where women are in search of their own independence, of finding what will truly quench their physical, spiritual, and emotional hunger. These are women who will sacrifice and risk all for who and what they love, what they need, what they want. They are wise and they are strong. They are like the women I know in my real life who are often criticized, undervalued, silenced, or invisible.

      Here, in these pages, a space has been created for their stories to be told. I believe we so desperately need these kinds of spaces—books, classrooms, writing workshops, community centers, homes—where women from all backgrounds can be seen and heard. These imaginary and actual spaces influence each other. If reality is flawed with sexist stereotypes and expectations, I should be able to read a story, a poem, and see what the world could be when characters prove to be more than those assumptions. When literature fails to show the myriad of experiences of what it means to act like СКАЧАТЬ