F147.
Nobody’s Mother: Writing Through the Decision to Parent
Friday, February 9, 2024
10:35 am to 11:50 am
This reading will focus on ways of writing about (non)motherhood. The participants will share work (including nonfiction, fiction, and poetry) that thinks through the various and difficult questions, concerns, griefs, and hopes of choosing—or not having the freedom to choose—whether or not to become a mother. Through sharing their writing, these authors will present possibilities for considering (non)motherhood in diverse genres and forms.
Participants
Casey Bell is the author of the slipstream short story collection Little Fury, out now with Metatron Press. She is a graduate of the MFA program at University of Nevada, Reno, where she currently teaches English. Her work most recently appeared in Sequestrum, Cream City Review, and Reed Magazine.
Stacy Gnall is the author of the poetry collections Dogged and Heart First into the Forest. A finalist for the Georgia Prize, she holds a PhD from the University of Southern California and is the founder of the youth writing program Wordstruck. She is poet-in-residence at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Keturah Kendrick is the author of the award-winning No Thanks: Black, Female, and Living in the Martyr-Free Zone; she writes personal narrative and memoir that explores the interior lives of Black women. She has written for NBC News, Newsweek, EdPost, Insider, USA Today, HuffPost and numerous publications.
Erin Swan is the author of Walk the Vanished Earth, a work of speculative fiction focusing on intergenerational trauma and environmental upheaval. A graduate of Teachers College at Columbia University and the MFA program at the New School, she teaches English at a public high school in Manhattan.
Katya Apekina is the author of The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish (2018) and Mother Doll (2024). She translated poetry and prose from Russian for Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (2008), short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. Born in Moscow, she lives in Los Angeles.
