Zambreno explores the relationship between women writers and the literary canon through the lens of modernist literature by examining the erasure and misrepresentation of female authors. She highlights the ways in which women's writing has been marginalized, dismissed as "confessional" or "unliterary," and often reduced to the personal or the "mad." By focusing on figures like Zelda Fitzgerald, Jane Bowles, and Virginia Woolf, Zambreno reveals the constraints and expectations placed on women writers, particularly in the context of marriage and the male-dominated literary establishment. She also critiques the mythologizing of male authors and the erasure of women's contributions, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and celebrating the work of women in modernist literature.