On Lies, Secrets and Silence
Selected Prose, 1966-78

This collection of prose writings by Adrienne Rich, an American poet and feminist theorist, reflects upon themes that have shaped her life and work. Issues explored include the politics of language, the uses of scholarship, racism, history and motherhood.

At issue are the politics of language; the uses of scholarship; and the topics of racism, history, and motherhood among others called forth by Rich as "part of the effort to define a female consciousness which is political, aesthetic, and erotic, and which refuses to be included or contained in the culture of passivity."