Motherhood, the Glorious Earthquake
11:00 am – 12:00 pm PDT
Ballroom 1 | Residence Inn | 2121 Center Street | Berkeley, CA
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. Moderated by Olivia Sears.
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.
Jazmina Barrera’s books have been published in nine countries and translated to English, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, and French. Her book Cuerpo extraño (Foreign Body) was awarded the Latin American Voices prize by Literal Publishing, and On Lighthouses was chosen for the Indie Next list by IndieBound. Linea Nigra was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Autobiography Prize, CANIEM’s Book of the Year award, and the Amazon Primera Novela (First Novel) Award. She is editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antílope. She lives in Mexico City.