Just in time for Mother’s Day, Bay Area author Minna Dubin joins San Mateo County Libraries on Saturday, May 4 at 2:00 PM at Belmont Library to discuss her newest book Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood with fellow local writer Jill Kolongowski!
A frank, feminist examination of the hidden crisis of rage—and how we can fix it.
Mothers aren’t supposed to be angry. Still, Minna Dubin was an angry mom: exhausted by the grueling, thankless work of full-time parenting and feeling her career slip away, she would find herself screaming at her child or exploding at her husband.
When Dubin pushed past her shame and talked with other mothers about how she was feeling, she realized that she was far from alone. Mom Rage is Dubin’s groundbreaking work of reportage about an unspoken crisis of anger sweeping the country—and the world. She finds that while a specific instance of rage might be triggered by something as simple as a child who won’t tie her shoes, the roots of the anger go far deeper, from the unequal burden of childcare shouldered by moms to the flattening of women’s identities once they have kids. Drawing on insights from moms across the spectrum of race, sexual orientation and class, she offers practical tools to help readers disarm their rage in the moment, while never losing sight of the broader social change we need to stop raging for good.
What Critics and Readers Have to Say
“A cleareyed analysis of the intricate web of cultural and political challenges that make female-identified parenting nearly impossible . . . the author writes with humor, vulnerability and a level of expertise that shapes her narrative into a nuanced and convincing argument for justice.” —Kirkus Reviews
"With an appendix of concrete tools . . . Mom Rage provides much-needed advice, company and consolation. It also offers a timely reminder that we might use our voices for more than bedtime stories." —Los Angeles Review of Books
“An original, eye-opening look at the rage that can consume mothers . . . This book represents a voice that belongs in every parenting collection." —Booklist
“A searing indictment of the failed systems of support and flawed narratives that too often surround parenthood . . . bound to resonate with any woman who has experienced the shift to motherhood as anything less than perfect." —Shelf Awareness
“Mom Rage is a critical addition to the literature of mothering, compassionately exploring the ugly, rageful moments that haunt many of us even as we struggle to do right by our kids. Dubin invites us to consider our rage in the full context of a perverse, broken, contradictory and cruel American system that fails families at every turn. I needed the compassion of this book, as well as its expansive look of what parenting can and should be.” —Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State
Get to Know the Authors
Minna Dubin, opens a new window (she/her) is a writer and mother in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, Parents, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Romper, The Forward, Hobart, MUTHA Magazine and Literary Mama. She is the recipient of an artist enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. As a leading feminist voice on mom rage, Minna has appeared on MSNBC, Good Morning America, The Tamron Hall Show, NBC10 Boston and NPR. Her groundbreaking work on mom rage has been covered in news articles from India to Portugal to South Africa.
Jill Kolongowski, opens a new window is a nonfiction writer and professor living in Northern California. She is the author of a collection of essays called Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me. Other essays have been published in Electric Literature, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Insider, Brevity, and River Teeth. She received her MFA from Saint Mary’s College of California. She is at work on a new essay collection about how the anxiety of being a young woman turned into the anxiety of being a mother, and how we survive the terror and the joy.
We hope to see you at Belmont Library for this special author event—the first fifty attendees will receive a free copy of Mom Rage to take home on a first come, first served basis. Be sure to keep an eye out for free giveaway copies of Mom Rage at other San Mateo County Libraries locations!
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