My Body Is a Big Fat Temple by Alena Dillon - guest on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books
Full interview: https://youtu.be/_oqhrl1M1yU
My Body Is a Big Fat Temple by Alena Dillon
"Alena Dillon is one of my favorite writers and to read her journey through pregnancy is a great joy and heartbreak."
-Amy Schumer
"Real and funny. I loved this book!"
-Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and The Family Firm
"Alena Dillon is the real gritty deal, and she leaves no agony or indignity unexamined. Plus, she's funny, reassuring, tender, and also furious--in other words, the perfect combo pizza for hungry new mothers."
-Catherine Newman, author of Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness
This memoir of pregnancy and early motherhood follows a writer as she debates having children, miscarries, faces morning sickness, uncertainty, physical impairments, labor, breastfeeding, the “baby blues,” the heartache of not loving her son as she thinks she should, parenting through a plague, until finally (basically, mostly) blossoming into her new identity.
Creating life is a primal phenomenon. It requires grit, resilience, and a lot of bathroom breaks. There are dry heaves and darkened nipples, crotch lightning and brain fuzz, milk stains, sleep regressions, and equal amounts of despair and joy. It's a complicated magic. The undertaking is airbrushed to preserve the ideal of motherhood, and exacerbated by a culture that dictates what women can do and how they should feel. We don’t get the full story, so mothers with unromantic experiences feel like aberrations, and worse, alone. This is why the voices of women matter. The voices of mothers matter. Here’s one to keep you company, and to remind you to do your Kegels. (They’re really important.)
About the Author
Alena Dillon is the author of Mercy House, a Library Journal Best Book of 2020, which has been optioned as a Paramount+ television series produced by Amy Schumer, as well as The Happiest Girl in the World, and My Body Is A Big Fat Temple, a memoir of pregnancy and early parenting, forthcoming from Woodhall Press October 2021.
Alena’s work has appeared in publications including LitHub, River Teeth, Slice Magazine, The Rumpus, The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review, and Bustle.
She teaches creative writing and lives on the north shore of Boston with her husband, son, black lab, and lots of books.
Learn more at alenadillon.com
