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Nancy Reddy

Nancy Reddy

Author Interview - Nancy Reddy

Author of The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom

The Good Mother Myth uses memoir, cultural criticism, and history of science to uncover the shoddy science beneath our bad ideas about how to be a good mom.

Author I draw inspiration from:

Kim Brooks's Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear was the first book I read that really showed the way to what I wanted to do with The Good Mother Myth--to use personal narrative as a jumping-off point for a deeper investigation. Small Animals starts with this dramatic moment from Brooks's own life--she leaves her four-year-old son in the car for a few moments while she runs into Target, and he's totally fine, but she discovers that a stranger has reported her for child neglect, and she's arrested, which turns into a multi-year ordeal. What I really admire about the book is how Brooks uses her own story as the starting point for a much deeper exploration about what we think it means to keep our kids safe, and how our ideas about surveillance are actually really bad for kids' mental health. And she broadens the lens to consider women with less privilege than she has--she has interviews with black mothers, for example, who've had to deal with the child welfare system after their kids were found playing in the park by themselves. I really love the idea of personal narrative as a prism for considering big social and cultural issues, and Brooks does that so well.

Author Interview - Nancy Reddy | Author I Draw Inspiration From

Favorite place to read a book:

We've got a cozy couch in our front room (meaning: away from the TV), and I've almost always got at least two books stashed there for when I have time to read. If I'm really lucky, I'll get a kid or two wedged onto the couch next to me, and we'll read together.

Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:

Armand Gamache from Louise Penny's series. He'd know how to get us out, and I bet he'd have a good snack on hand, or would know where to find a cafe au lait and a croissant once we were free.

Author Interview - Nancy Reddy | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With

The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:

I mean, always, probably! I think I was writing little stories as soon as I could hold a crayon. But I remember really clearly my first writing workshop, a poetry seminar I took in high school that was on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh: I turned in a poem and got it back with red pen all over it, and somehow I wasn't horrified or embarrassed, but I thought, oh this is something you could really work at. That idea of writing as a discipline, as a craft was really powerful for me.

Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:

I love the sturdiness of a hardcover, but I find them intimidating. A paperback's always my choice, if I can choose--I can read, mark favorite sentences, turn down pages I want to re-read without feeling any guilt! I love an ebook for vacation--knowing I've got lots of extra books at the ready is a total travel comfort. I don't do a lot of audiobooks, to be honest--I prefer the physicality of a printed book--but there is something really great about getting totally absorbed in a story on a long drive.

The last book I read:

I just finished Sheila Liming's Hanging Out, which is a nonfiction book about, as the subtitle puts it, "the radical power of killing time." I teach a senior seminar on Jenny Odell's How to do Nothing, and I'm working on developing a first year seminar on Liming's book. I really do think we all need to rediscover the value of that kind of aimless hanging out--just spending time together, not aiming for productivity or a particular outcome--and what better time to do that than your first semester of college?

Author Interview - Nancy Reddy | The Last Book I Read

Pen & paper or computer:

I always find that I do my best initial thinking in my pen and paper, and in addition to a regular writing notebook, I always like to keep a little notebook stashed anywhere I think inspiration might strike. (I've learned that my gym bag is a key place to keep a notebook--exercise often unsticks my brain, so I need a spot to record whatever comes to me after a workout!)

Once I start typing something up, it starts to really feel more real to me, and that's when I can think more about the structure and the argument or the development of the ideas.

Then there's almost always a part where I have to print everything out and cut it up, highlight it, tape it to a wall or move it around on the floor so I can see everything. This feels so wasteful, but I've learned that it's a non-negotiable for me--if I can't see the whole project, I just can't understand it! If I'm doing a big revision, I'll almost always actually retype because starting with a fresh document gets my brain to work in different ways than just tinkering inside an existing word doc.

So YES, pen and paper *and* computer, and also highlighters and index cards and painter's tape--I need a lot of *stuff* to get my writing done!

Book character I think I’d be best friends with:

I love the unlikely-group-of-friends trope (bonus points if that unlikely group is solving a murder!) so I'd have to say the friends of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club Series or Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong series. I love a fictional world a surprising group of people come together. I like to think I'd be able to slide right in--and maybe even help find the killer!

Author Interview - Nancy Reddy | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With

If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:

Well, in real life, I'm also a professor--I teach first-year writing and creative writing at a regional public university, and I really am a teacher in my heart. In a dream life, I'd like to say I'd run a cute bakery/coffee shop/bookstore combo--but I know enough about how hard those businesses are to acknowledge that really what I want is to hang out at gorgeous spots like that! Though I do make a good cookie.

Favorite decade in fashion history:

I want to say something cool like the Mad Men/60s era, but realistically, I think I'll always be stuck in an Elder Millennial high-waisted jeans era. (I've still got my skinnies, though I've also embraced a barrel leg!)

Place I’d most like to travel:

I love the Pacific Northwest. My husband and I did a really wonderful slow roadtrip years ago, before our kids were born, from San Francisco along the coast up to Portland and then Seattle. I'd love to do that again, starting in Portland and going up to Vancouver this time.

My signature drink:

So much coffee, or at least a steady stream of it. (I got an Ember mug for Christmas a couple years ago, and it's perfect for my purposes--a cup of hot coffee at my desk all morning? yes, please!)

Favorite artist:

I'm terrible at favorites, but Florence and the Machine is a forever fave. I listened to a ton of her while I was writing The Good Mother Myth--Mermaids on a one-hour loop is basically the soundtrack to the Winnicott chapter.

Find more from the author:

  • instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancy.o.reddy/

About Nancy Reddy:

Author Interview with Nancy Reddy

Nancy Reddy is the author of The Good Mother Myth, forthcoming with St. Martin’s Press in January 2025. Her previous books include the poetry collection Pocket Universe and Double Jinx, a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Emily Pérez, she’s co-editor of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Her essays have appeared in Slate, Poets & Writers, Romper, The Millions, and elsewhere. She writes the newsletter Write More, Be Less Careful. You can find her on Instagram at nancy.o.reddy.

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Robert Dugoni

Robert Dugoni

Bookish Buys: Let's Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen

Bookish Buys: Let's Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen

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