To celebrate the release of Laurie Loewenstein’s debut novel, Unmentionables, we’ve invited organizations to share with us some history related to aspects incorporated in Unmentionables. Set in 1917, Unmentionables tells the story of Marian Elliot Adams, an advocate for women’s rights who travels across the country on the Chautauqua Circuit, giving talks about the need for women to abandon constricting “unmentionables.” Today, Kären M. Mason at the Iowa Women’s Archives shares information about women on the Chautauqua Circuit in the early 20th century, and photos of women during the time.
Join us for two upcoming launch events in New York! Edwidge Danticat will launch Haiti Noir 2: The Classics at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Dweck Center on January 16th, and Laurie Loewenstein and Kaylie Jones will launch Unmentionables and Kaylie Jones Books at Bluestockings on January 22nd!
“Put them on,” says Alma, my wife’s aunt, extending a pair of pink and sparkly shoes with two Velcro straps that remind me of something my great-grandfather would have worn if they were a different color and weren’t twinkling like one of my daughter’s glitter projects . . .
“That boy Carlson is a liar and a rogue,” I tell my daughter Eve on a Saturday night, as she primps to leave for a house party in Brooklyn. “I wouldn’t go near that boy with a ten-foot pole . . .”
