Visiting Artists Series: Author Johanna De Biase

Author Johanna de Biase will read from her new book, Mama and the Hun­gry Hole. In a nar­ra­tive inter­wo­ven with fairy­tales, the lines that divide mem­o­ries from dreams blur. Julia is 4-years-old and her Mama has stolen her away to the moun­tains of north­ern New Mex­ico where every­thing is unfa­mil­iar and every­one is unknown. Lonely and often forced to take care of her­self dur­ing Mama’s many “quiet times,” Julia befriends a tree. Tree has been around longer than any­one and wit­nessed the vil­lage change from thriv­ing ranch­ing town to hip­pie com­mune to bed­room com­mu­nity. When Julia’s Nana comes to visit and a trav­el­ing Cir­cus moves in next door it seems like every­thing will change for the bet­ter, but Tree is the first to notice the eerie sen­sa­tion of noth­ing­ness deep beneath its roots.

The event will include a book sign­ing and Q & A ses­sion with the author. The Visiting Artists Series is co-sponsored by Artists' Milepost and Elohi Gadugi Journal.

“Johanna DeBiase’s Mama & the Hun­gry Hole exca­vates the inno­cence and despair of the lim­i­nal child. As activist as it is fem­i­nist, DeBi­ase fol­lows the abrupt agony when the body is con­fronted with death. Here, mourn­ing yields potent escapism, and Mama & the Hun­gry Hole is a mag­i­cal curse that we dare not stop read­ing.”
– Lily Hoang, author of Unfin­ished and The Evo­lu­tion­ary Revolution