Filgate’s powerful October 2017 essay in Longreads about the way being abused by her stepfather affected her relationship with her mother touched a nerve with many readers. As the piece made the rounds of social media, Filgate asked other writers for their thoughts on being a son or daughter. The resulting anthology represents a wide range of relationships, both loving and abusive, by writers from diverse socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. Moving and thought-provoking, these reflections by fifteen of today’s most exciting young writers—including Alexander Chee, Bernice L. McFadden, Kiese Laymon, and Carmen Maria Machado—illuminate the complexity of the mother-child bond.
Filgate will be in conversation with Bethanne Patrick, aka The BookMaven, an author and critic whose column on hot reads appears monthly in The Washington Post.
