With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of free speech (and publishing), Russian women have become a force in the world of letters. Where in the past they were known chiefly as literary widows or devoted wives, occasionally as poets or critics, and only very rarely as novelists, today they are beginning to dominate publishing lists in fiction and non-fiction alike. Glas's third collection of top women writers, NINE includes three internationally known names - Ludmila Petrushevskaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya, and Svetlana Alexiyevich - as well as half a dozen other foremost women authors appearing here for the first time in English.