Edited by Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf, American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present (2000) profiles thirteen hundred writers spanning the full history of the United States and including all genres.

Edited by Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi and Albert Gelpi, Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose: Poems, Prose, Reviews, and Criticism (1993) gives readers the best of Rich's poetry and essays. Although Rich's background is very similar to Pastan's and both women are respected writers, their bodies of work are very different.

Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems: Volume Two (2005) is hailed as a fitting companion to Oliver's National Book Award-winning first volume. Here, she offers her readers the Robert Frost-like poetry they have come to love, coupled with the perspective of wisdom and age.

Pastan's first book of poetry, A Perfect Circle of Sun (1971), takes the reader through a different...