An Afternoon with Julie Marie Wade and Les Standiford

***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event. Want your copy early or can't make it in-person?

A nostalgic and poignant coming-of-age story told through one young woman's relationships with the mother figures in her lifeRelationships between mothers and daughters can often be complicated and fraught. Even in the best of circumstances, many of us may have grown up curious about the mothers of our friends--looking to them, learning from them (for better or for worse), and wondering what it would be like to be a part of their families.Other People's Mothers is a collection of interconnected, autobiographical essays that explore the relationship between a daughter, her mother, and the other mothers present in their lives. In this coming-of-age memoir, Julie Marie Wade traces a nexus of female influences on her formative years in the '80s and '90s. Through words and actions, the women around her communicate powerful and often contradictory messages about class, religion, education, and morality, holding enormous power over Wade's journey toward adulthood.In expanding her exploration of motherhood and daughterhood to include these "othermothers," Wade takes a new and surprising kaleidoscopic approach to her portrayals of family life. This book reveals a young woman in the late twentieth century grappling with gendered expectations, beauty and body ideals, and complex messages about who she is permitted--or destined--to become.

JULIE MARIE WADE is the author of many collections of poetry, prose, and hybrid forms, most recently Quick Change Artist: Poems (Anhinga Press, 2025), selected by Octavio Quintanilla as the winner of the 2023 Anhinga Prize in Poetry and The Mary Years (Texas Review Press, 2024), selected by Michael Martone as the winner of the 2023 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize. A recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir and grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Wade makes her home with Angie Griffin and their two cats in Dania Beach and is a professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.Les Staniford is the New York Times Bestselling author of 25 books and novels, including LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE, now approaching its 40th printing, BATTLE FOR THE BIG TOP, winner of the Gold Medal in General Non Fiction from the Florida Book Awards, and BRINGING ADAM HOME, a #1 Wall Street Journal True Crime Bestseller. His novel SPILL was made into a feature film as was his book on Charles Dickens, THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS, starring Christopher Plummer and Dan Stevens. He is Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami where he lives with his artist wife Kimberly. His new book Coral Gables: the design, building, and preservation of an iconic American city will appear in 2025, concurrent with the 100th anniversary of the city's founding.

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