Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias (1988) is another story of strong Southern women who support and encourage each other during times of challenge. Harling's novel was made into a blockbuster movie in 1989, starring Sally Fields, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts.

Alan Ball wrote Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (1998), a comedy about five very distinct women who feel the same about an upcoming wedding.

Beth Henley, Vol. 1: Collected Plays 1980—1989 (2000) and Beth Henley, Vol. 2: Collected Plays 1990—1999 (2000) in the Contemporary Playwrights series form a two-volume set of all of her works to date, each prefaced by anecdotes from some of her collaborators.

Three Famous Short Novels (1958), by William Faulkner, contains The Bear, Old Man, and Spotted Horses, and is a good sampling of the diversity of this Southern writer.

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1982) illustrates...