Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, we speak with two authors who excavate buried truths and challenge dominant cultural narratives.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez discusses her historical novel Happy Land, inspired by a real African American community founded after the Civil War in North and South Carolina—an intentional kingdom that embodied Black sovereignty, only to be undermined by systemic land theft.

“Even though we have them in the history books as a monarchy, there must have also been a kind of shared power, a kind of egalitarianism that they participated in.” — Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Then, Nancy Reddy talks about The Good Mother Myth, her nonfiction book/memoir dismantling the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers, tracing them to flawed psychological theories and cultural constructions that ignore caregiving as a collective act.

“The good mother isn’t really a person—she is a subject of capitalism.” — Nancy Reddy

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Key Words: Nancy Reddy, The Good Mother Myth, motherhood, parenting, attachment theory, communal parenting, book about motherhood, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Happy Land, African American history, Black land loss,

You Might Also Like: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, TAKE MY HAND, Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS

Novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez tells the remarkable true story behind Happy Land—a kingdom founded by formerly enslaved people in the Carolinas, where a Black queen ruled and the community thrived on self-sufficiency, education, and shared governance. She explores themes of legacy, land, and what it costs when history is erased.

Read an excerpt from Happy Land

Writer, poet and scholar Nancy Reddy discusses the myths surrounding ideal motherhood—how they evolved, why they persist, and whom they leave out. She critiques attachment theory, the capitalist agenda behind parenting advice, and the absence of real community in caregiving. Reddy also shares insights from her personal journey and calls for a redefinition of love and care.

Listen to an Excerpt from The Good Mother Myth