Dorothy Abbott, Water Valley, Mississippi, is an award-winning writer, journalist, editor, radio producer, and global activist specializing in literature, media, culture, and the arts. She served as assistant director of the literature program at the National Endowment for the Arts and has authored eight literary anthologies.

I cannot recommend too highly this comprehensive, and I emphasize the word comprehensive, four-volume anthology. . . . I can only hope this work finds the audience it deserves, which should be a very large audience indeed. We are all in Dorothy Abbott's debt for having rendered this service to the cause of literature."" - Harry Crews