JOAN L. BROWN holds the Elias Ahuja Chair of Spanish at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Hispanic studies and earned MA and PhD degrees in romance languages-Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. Her publications have explored canon formation, literature by women, the contemporary Spanish novel, and language and literature pedagogy. Previous books include Secrets from the Back Room: The Fiction of Carmen Martín Gaite, Women Writers of Contemporary Spain: Exiles in the Homeland (editor), Confronting Our Canons: Spanish and Latin American Studies in the 21st Century, Approaches to Teaching the Works of Carmen Martín Gaite (editor), and, with Carmen Martín Gaite, the textbook Conversaciones creadoras: Mastering Spanish Conversation.