By The Keystone Newspaper Event will include keynote presentation, Q&A and book signing
By Alice Frank
Author Molly Jong-Fast will speak at KU on Monday, March 9, at 6 p.m. in MSU 218 in observance of International Women’s History Month. This event will include a keynote presentation, Q&A session and book signing for her memoir “How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir.”
Image Credit: Kutztown University
An American journalist, political commentator and cultural critic, Jong-Fast has written two novels and three memoirs. Her most recent memoir, published in June, became a New York Times bestseller within three weeks of its release.
Her memoir examines her tumultuous relationship with her mother, Erica Jong, as she receives a dementia diagnosis and endures her husband’s battle with pancreatic cancer. Jong-Fast reflects the grievances that follow when caring for an ill parent while simultaneously navigating her deep-seated childhood trauma.
Novelist Martha McPhee offered her perspective in The Washington Post on the fierce honesty Jong-Fast’s memoir provides.
“[The memoir is a] transformative work of alchemy, arming us all with lines so good you won’t just want to underline them, you will want to cut them out to share,” McPhee said.
KU’s Women’s Center and the Department of Women and Gender Studies coordinated Jong-Fast’s visit. During her talk, she is expected to discuss her work’s emotional depth, vulnerability and sharp humor, reflecting on personal experiences of grief, shame and evolving self-identity.