Leverich has a doctorate in English literature from the University of Michigan. She has taught writing and literature at Michigan, New York University's School of Continuing Education, and Georgetown University. In the following essay, she discusses feminism and history in "On Discovery. "

When Maxine Hong Kingston began writing her first novel, she found that she was really writing two books. In an interview with Paula Rabinowitz in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Kingston said:

At one time, The Woman Warrior and China Men were supposed to be one book. I had conceived of one huge book. However, part of the reason for two books is history. The women had their own time and place and their lives were coherent; there was a woman's way of thinking. My men's stones seemed to interfere. They were weakening the feminist point of view. So I took all the men's stones out...