Elk River Arts & Lectures is thrilled to be teaming up with the Abuse, Support, & Prevention Education Network (ASPEN) to host writer Stephanie Land. Land’s story serves as the inspiration for Netflix’s Golden Globe Award-nominated original series Maid.
Stephanie Land’s bestselling debut memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive recounts her harrowing saga as a single mom navigating the poverty trap. Her unflinching testimony exposes the physical, economic, and social brutality that domestic workers face, all while radiating a parent’s hope and resilience.
“Vivid and engaging, [Maid] illuminates the struggles of poverty… the unrelenting frustration of having no safety net, the ways in which our society is systematically designed to keep impoverished people mired in poverty.” –Roxane Gay
“Land nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of fate will push you deeper into the hole.” –The Boston Globe
Land graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Montana in 2014, and started a career as a freelance writer. Maid was named as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, and was listed among President Obama’s summer reading list for 2019.
Land is currently at work on her next book, Class, about the hard truths surrounding college education in America including high costs, predatory practices, and discriminatory policies faced by Americans who hope education will lead to security and prosperity.
She writes about economic and social justice, domestic abuse, chronic illness, and motherhood, and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books, among many other outlets. A writing fellow at the Center for Community Change, Land has worked with Barbara Ehrenreich at the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
For more information about Stephanie Land, please visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and at stepville.com.
Land’s visit is made possible by the generous support of Humanities Montana and the Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation, as well as individual donors. During her visit, Land will meet with students at Park High School. The free public event will include a book signing and reception.
