Split the Baby: Lauren Rhoades in Conversation with Benjamin Morris

Join writers Lauren Rhoades and Benjamin Morris for an interfaith discussion on place, memory, and cultural and spiritual identity. Together they will discuss Rhoades’s debut book Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces, which chronicles the toll of divorce and family rupture from the perspective of a child who was nearly torn in two. Lauren Rhoades retells her experience of growing up caught between two homes run by equally strong women: a fervently Catholic stepmother and a deeply sensitive Jewish mother. Pulled toward radically distinct family cultures with rich but conflicting religious traditions, the young girl struggles to reconcile her stepmother’s possessive charm with her mother’s fierce and vulnerable love. Working with a trove of salvaged documents—including psychological evaluations, legal records, and personal family diaries—Rhoades searches for answers to questions of identity, spirituality, and the relationships that most deeply shape us. Rhoades is a Southern transplant who has lived in Jackson, Mississippi, since 2013, and Benjamin Morris is a Mississippi native who now lives in New Orleans. They will discuss how living in Mississippi has shaped their own religious and spiritual identities, as well as how they have worked to create strong communities in their chosen homes.

Bio: Lauren Rhoades is a writer and editor living in Jackson, Mississippi. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Lauren has served with AmeriCorps, started Mississippi’s first fermentation company, and helmed the Eudora Welty House & Garden. She is now director of grants at the Mississippi Arts Commission and a host of MPB’s The Mississippi Arts Hour. In 2022, Lauren founded Rooted Magazine, a bestselling Substack publication dedicated to telling unfiltered stories about what it means to call Mississippi home. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the Mississippi University for Women. Her debut memoir, Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces was published in June, 2025.

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