UMN English department: Q&A with Kate Hopper

In this pioneering memoir of birthing and caring for a premature baby, a mother is only human

Hopper_Ready coverDo/did you have any reservations about portraying yourself in this book with such frankness, by turns raging, weak, blaming, horrified, depressed, etc.?

When I began to write about Stella’s birth and our experience in the NICU and the months that followed, I was coming out of that hard place, so I felt really passionately about getting down the truth of our experience in hopes that it would help another mother down the line. It is hard to really bare yourself and write the ugly parts (which is why people have a hard time talking and writing about those things). But it was really important to me to write myself as honestly as possible, to not sugarcoat anything or make myself into a hero. I hope readers will see me as a human being navigating a challenging situation.

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Published in: UMN English Department interviews
By: Five X Friday