Surrealist Women: An International Anthology is a wide-ranging and delightful collection of essay s compiled by editor Penelope Rosemont and published in 1998. The writers explore such diverse topics as racism in the 1930s, French poetry, and the tale of "The Golden Goose," all with a surrealistic twist.

The question is whether creativity is a therapeutic, culturally enriching pursuit or only an outpouring of a dark unconscious full of dangerous, neurotic thoughts. An answer is offered by Kevin Brophy in Creativity: Psychoanalysis, Surrealism and Creative Writing (1999). Brophy uses theory, history, autobiography, and fiction to make his intriguing point.

Little publicized in America, the poets and writers in Another Republic: 17 European and South American Writers provide a wonderful overview of international poetry that many Americans do not otherwise have the opportunity to read. This 1985 collection is edited by Mark Strand and Charles...