Can fiction contribute to the fight for social justice today? The twenty-five articles in The Gift of Fire argue that it can. By examining the characters, conflict, and plot in her novel, The F Words, Barbara Gregorich shows how the fight for social justice directs plot and shapes character - and how literature can both depict an understanding of the need for social justice and inspire others to fight for it.

The situations in The F Words are based on real-life events such as the closing of public schools, the dumbing-down of public education, the suppression of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and, in a major way, the attacks on and deportation of immigrants.

To read The Gift of Fire is to not only understand how a writer works, but also to gain a deeper appreciation of story structure. Most of all, to read The Gift of Fire is to understand the vital importance of the rights we have gained over the last 250 years of political struggle.