Whether it's a young co-ed who has lived her life succumbing to passion and authority, a woman struggling with the intense demands of motherhood, or a newlywed whose new mirror-filled home proves too much for her fragile psyche, these thirteen stories-edgy and alluring-inexorably peel back the layers of the women they portray. By turns lyrical and haunting, plainspoken and frank, award-winning writer Mary Akers' finely crafted debut collection WOMEN UP ON BLOCKS explores the price women pay when they allow the roles of wife, mother, daughter, or lover to define them.