Motherhood, the Glorious Earthquake

Motherhood is such a transformative experience in a woman’s life—in her body, psyche, place within the generations—that it’s the rare writer who can capture its complexities. Today we present three. Mexican essayist Jazmina Barrera’s stunning essay-memoir, Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy & Earthquakes, recounts her pregnancy, birth, and early life as a mother with startling intimacy. Pulitzer finalist Chloé Cooper Jones recalls, in her memoir Easy Beauty , how the physical and emotional pain of having a disability was utterly transformed when she became a mother. International Booker Prize winner Jokha Alharthi’s novels probe women’s experience as grandmothers, mothers, caretakers, daughters, and sisters; in her latest masterwork, Bitter Orange Tree, a young Omani woman is haunted by the memory of the woman who raised her and thus sacrificed her dream of a husband and children of her own.

The bookstore partner for this session is Pegasus Books! Buy the books online on their website, on Bookshop.org, or purchase them in person at the Festival. More information here.

Book signing information: Pegasus Books Tent at the Bookstore Blv (corner of Allston & Milvia in the Outdoor Fair) at in the park, 12:15 PM

Presented in partnership with Words Without Borders and co-sponsored by the Center for the Art of Translation