Not since Kafka's Gregor Samsa awoke to discover that he'd turned into a cockroach has literature addressed such a traumatic transformation. In order to compile Dick for a Day, scholar and feminist Fiona Giles approached hundreds of well-known writers, poets, artists, actresses, and academics and asked them to express what they might feel if they abruptly found themselves genitally altered.

From Terry McMillan to Jennifer Blowdryer, from Patricia Cornwell to Linda Sexton Gray, we find unexpected answers: hygienic, erotic, metaphysical, and even spiritual. By turns playful and sociologically profound, Dick for a Day is a milestone in sophisticated humor and feminist literature.