Michele Filgate's work has appeared in Longreads; The Washington Post; the Los Angeles Times; The Boston Globe; The Paris Review Daily; Tin House; Gulf Coast; O, The Oprah Magazine; BuzzFeed; Refinery29; and many other publications. Currently, she is an MFA student at NYU, where she is the recipient of the Stein Fellowship. She's a contributing editor at Literary Hub and teaches at the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop and Catapult. What My Mother and I Don't Talk About is her first book.
"These essays, each one exceptional on its own, encompass both love
and writing at their most vulnerable, and could power entire cities
with their electricity."--Booklist, starred
review
"Fifteen essayists-many luminaries-write unflinchingly about their
mothers...Each one of these intimate and gut-wrenching essays
reaches beyond itself to forge connections with readers."--Kirkus
Reviews, starred review
"The essays all address the authors' relationships with their
mothers in stories to be savored but not necessarily read in one
sitting. ...beautifully composed."--Library Journal, starred
review
"A fascinating set of reflections on what it is like to be a son or
daughter... the range of stories and styles represented in this
collection makes for rich and rewarding reading."--Publishers
Weekly
"These are the hardest stories in the world to tell, but they are
told with absolute grace. You will devour these beautifully
written-and very important- tales of honesty, pain, and
resilience."--Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times
bestselling author of Eat Pray Love
"By turns raw, tender, bold and wise, the essays in this anthology
explore writers' relationships with their mothers. Kudos to Michele
Filgate for this riveting contribution to a vital
conversation."--Claire Messud, bestselling author of The
Burning Girl
"Fifteen literary luminaries, including Filgate herself, probe how
silence is never even remotely golden until it is mined for the
haunting truths that lie within our most primal relationships-with
our mothers. Unsettling, brave, sometimes hilarious and sometimes
scorching enough to wreck your heart, these essays, about love or
the terrifying lack of it, don't just smash the silence; they let
the light in, bearing witness with grace, understanding and writing
so gorgeous you'll be memorizing lines."--Caroline Leavitt,
New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow
and Pictures of You
"This collection of storytelling constellated around mothers and
silence will break your heart and then gently give it back to you
stitched together with what we carry in our bodies our whole
lives."--Lidia Yuknavitch, national bestselling author of The
Misfit's Manifesto
"This is a rare collection that has the power to break silences. I
am in awe of the talent Filgate has assembled here; each of these
fifteen heavyweight writers offer a truly profound argument for why
words matter, and why unspoken words may matter even
more."--Garrard Conley, New York Times bestselling author
of Boy Erased
"Who better to discuss one of our greatest shared surrialities --
that we are all, once and forever, for better or worse, someone's
child -- than this murderer's row of writers? The mothers in this
collection are terrible, wonderful, flawed, human, tragic,
triumphant, complex, simple, baffling, supportive, deranged,
heartbreaking and heartbroken. Sometimes all at once. I'll be
thinking about this book, and stewing over it, and teaching from
it, for a long time."--Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great
Believers
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