“A rewriting of every helpless princess fairy tale and a reclamation of every Scarlet Letter…We Were Witches is an absolute must-read.” Ms. magazine
Description
Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she’s there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag’s pyramid to analyze life.
So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Anzaldúa, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker.
Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother. She’s beset by custody disputes, homophobia, and America’s ever-present obsession with shaming strange women into passive citizenship. But even as the narrator struggles to graduate―often the triumphant climax of a dramatic plot―a question uncomfortably lingers. If you’re dealing with precarious parenthood, queer identity, and debt, what is the true narrative shape of your experience?
Praise
“A rewriting of every helpless princess fairy tale and a reclamation of every Scarlet Letter…We Were Witches is an absolute must-read.” Ms. magazine
“Ariel…calculates and acts impulsively and makes strange and strong choices. And we are right there with her.” Santa Fe Reporter
“Raw and truthful, painfully funny, inspiring of outrage, and alive with the wonder and magic of a feminist awakening. One single mom becoming woke, struggling, and triumphing on her own outsider terms, We Were Witches is a new feminist classic, penned by one the culture’s strongest authors at her most experimental and personal.” Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave
“Both magical and punk rock—the way it takes traditional values and traditional story structure to task, the way Gore’s protagonist, Ariel, uses witchy intelligence to resist a system totally against her.” Michelle Cruz Gonzales, author of The Spitboy Rule
“Gore tells her story with such verve and wit I missed my train stop reading it.” Lambda Literary Review
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Apr 16, 2018 |
| Release Date | April 17, 2018 |
| Release Date Machine | 1523923200 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Genre Fiction, LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction, Fiction - All, Fiction - Adult |
Author Bio
Ariel Gore is a journalist, teacher, and author of numerous books on parenting. She is the founding editor–publisher of Hip Mama, an Alternative Press Award–winning publication covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Her memoir Atlas of the Human Heart was a 2004 finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City won a Lambda Literary Award in 2010.
Narrator Bio
Ariel Gore is a journalist, teacher, and author of numerous books on parenting. She is the founding editor–publisher of Hip Mama, an Alternative Press Award–winning publication covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Her memoir Atlas of the Human Heart was a 2004 finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City won a Lambda Literary Award in 2010.
Overview
Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she’s there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag’s pyramid to analyze life.
So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Anzaldúa, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker.
Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother. She’s beset by custody disputes, homophobia, and America’s ever-present obsession with shaming strange women into passive citizenship. But even as the narrator struggles to graduate―often the triumphant climax of a dramatic plot―a question uncomfortably lingers. If you’re dealing with precarious parenthood, queer identity, and debt, what is the true narrative shape of your experience?
Reviews
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