The Council for Wisconsin Writers presents the first prize for Booklength Nonfiction written during the year 1981 to Annis Pratt’s Archetypal Patterns in Women’s Fiction: A beautifully written book on a topic that breaks new ground in literary and feminist criticism. Pratt and associates have drawn on a wealth of materials (over 300 novels written by women) to uncover certain “archetypal patterns”—characters, situations, and themes which recur in women’s fiction. Reading the book is a process of discovery. Though Pratt treats the subject with a rigorous scholarly perspective, she creates a kind of history of women’s writing and tells her story with obvious sensitivity.
