“It felt like energy, like the words, the story, it just felt like something that had to come out of my body. And if I wasn’t going to write it, I was going to scream it or I was gonna dig it, or something. I mean seriously, that’s where I was when I was writing this” - Rachel Yoder.

An ode to the all-consuming and sometimes feral experience of motherhood, Rachel Yoder’s debut novel Nightbitch tells the story of a new mother who begins turning into a dog at night.

Chronicling the joy, mundanity and instability of modern motherhood, Nightbitch drew international acclaim, cementing Yoder as one of America’s most exciting contemporary novelists and luring the attention of Hollywood, with a film adaption starring Amy Adams currently in production.

For her first ever conversation event in Australia, Yoder joined Australian author Kate Mildenhall (The Mother Fault) to discuss the strangeness of motherhood, the challenges new parents often confront to retain a sense of self, and the many complexities involved in depicting the fullness of the mothering experience in fiction.

This event was recorded on Friday, 3 March 2023 at the Wheeler Centre as part of M/OTHER: a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.

The official bookseller for M/OTHER was Neighbourhood Books.

Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.

Conversations from M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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