Overview

Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she's there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag's pyramid to analyze life. So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Anzaldua, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker. Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother. She's beset by custody disputes, homophobia, and America's ever-present obsession with shaming strange women into passive citizenship. But even as the narrator struggles to graduate-often the triumphant climax of a dramatic plot-a question uncomfortably lingers. If you're dealing with precarious parenthood, queer identity, and debt, what is the true narrative shape of your experience?

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9781538546192

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Reviews

This book mimics the messy, discursive texture of memory-of life...Inventive and affecting. -- Kirkus Reviews Everything you didn't know you were allowed to want in a narrative. -- Audiostraddle Gore tells her story with such verve and wit I missed my train stop reading it. -- Lambda Literary Review A scathing indictment of a system that works against people who are poor and female as well as a piercing and wise look at one woman's struggle to overcome it. -- Booklist Gore's magic-infused narrative...is a moving account of a young writer and mother striving to claim her own agency and find her voice. -- Publishers Weekly Ariel...calculates and acts impulsively and makes strange and strong choices. And we are right there with her. -- Santa Fe Reporter A rewriting of every helpless princess fairy tale and a reclamation of every Scarlet Letter...We Were Witches is an absolute must-read. -- Ms. magazine

A rewriting of every helpless princess fairy tale and a reclamation of every Scarlet Letter...We Were Witches is an absolute must-read. -- Ms. magazine Ariel...calculates and acts impulsively and makes strange and strong choices. And we are right there with her. -- Santa Fe Reporter Gore's magic-infused narrative...is a moving account of a young writer and mother striving to claim her own agency and find her voice. -- Publishers Weekly A scathing indictment of a system that works against people who are poor and female as well as a piercing and wise look at one woman's struggle to overcome it. -- Booklist Gore tells her story with such verve and wit I missed my train stop reading it. -- Lambda Literary Review Everything you didn't know you were allowed to want in a narrative. -- Audiostraddle This book mimics the messy, discursive texture of memory-of life...Inventive and affecting. -- Kirkus Reviews

A scathing indictment of a system that works against people who are poor and female as well as a piercing and wise look at one woman's struggle to overcome it. -- Booklist This book mimics the messy, discursive texture of memory-of life...Inventive and affecting. -- Kirkus Reviews Gore's magic-infused narrative...is a moving account of a young writer and mother striving to claim her own agency and find her voice. -- Publishers Weekly Everything you didn't know you were allowed to want in a narrative. -- Audiostraddle Gore tells her story with such verve and wit I missed my train stop reading it. -- Lambda Literary Review Ariel...calculates and acts impulsively and makes strange and strong choices. And we are right there with her. -- Santa Fe Reporter A rewriting of every helpless princess fairy tale and a reclamation of every Scarlet Letter...We Were Witches is an absolute must-read. -- Ms. magazine

Author Information

Ariel Gore is a journalist, teacher, and author of numerous books on parenting. She is the founding editor-publisher of Hip Mama, an Alternative Press Award-winning publication covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Her memoir Atlas of the Human Heart was a 2004 finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City won a Lambda Literary Award in 2010.

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