Motherhood and Memoir: A Conversation with Author Sarah Hoover | Athena Books
Arts
Literary Arts
`Athena Books is thrilled to welcome bestselling author and art historian Sarah Hoover to Old Greenwich to discuss her new memoir,
The Motherload: Episodes from the Brink of Motherhood
, with fellow author and friend of the store Avery Carpenter Forrey. Join us for an important conversation about motherhood, expectations, and relationships. You won't want to miss this very special evening!
Your ticket includes to the event includes wine, seltzer and light dessert.
About The Motherload:
A Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by
Oprah Daily
,
Town & Country
, and
Brit + Co
“The kid was objectively a tiny worm, even worse, a worm with my nose.” Welcome to Sarah Hoover’s candid and propulsive take on motherhood where she turns the ecstatic narrative women have been fed—one of immediate connection to your child followed by a joyful path of maternal discovery—on its head.
Like most of us, Sarah Hoover grew up imagining a certain life for herself, and when she moved from Indiana to New York City to study art history, the life she’d imagined began falling into place. She got her degree in art history, landed a job in a gallery, made friends, and met interesting artists, one of whom became her husband. But when Hoover got pregnant, everything in her life began to unravel.
She felt like an imposter in her own body. She grew distant from her friends and husband. Anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame threatened to swallow her. She also experienced trauma at the hands of one of her doctors—a stark trigger. And when her son was born, there was no…
joy
.
Her despair was persistent, even with help, therapy, and pills. Grieving a lost identity and angry at the world around her, she found herself despising her baby, her husband, and herself. She was afraid it might not end. With the help of a doctor’s diagnosis, Hoover began to understand the cluster of symptoms that informed her experience—she was drowning in postpartum depression—and that she wasn’t a bad mother or a failed woman.
At its core,
The Motherload
is about learning to forgive yourself. It’s a rejection of the cultural idea of the mother as a perfect being. And it’s an honest, propulsive, and often funny take on the vicissitudes of marriage, life, and parenting—a motherhood memoir unlike any other.
About Sarah Hoover:
Sarah Hoover holds a master’s degree in cultural theory from Columbia and a BA in art history from NYU. Her writing has been featured in the
Wall Street Journal
,
Mother Tongue
,
The Strategist
, and
Vogue
.
The Motherload
is her first book.
About Avery Carpenter Forrey:
Avery Carpenter Forrey is the author of
Social Engagement
, which was a GMA Buzz Pick and featured by Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Buzzfeed, and other publications. As Managing Editor at theSkimm, she cowrote the #1 New York Times bestseller
How to Skimm Your Life
. Her writing has also appeared in The Cut, GQ, and Lit Hub. She holds an MFA in fiction from NYU and lives in Connecticut with her husband and daughter.
Information Source: Athena Books | eventbrite
