Author Talk: Caroline Hagood on Writing Motherhood in Dystopian Times

"Profoundly unique and honest...somehow executed with an astonishing lack of ego. Hagood will break your heart with her naked sincerity; a masterful, singular writer who sheds light with every page." --MARY-LOUISE PARKER
With the fearlessness and inventive wit of Rachel Yoder's NIGHTBITCH, Caroline Hagood's speculative memoir GOBLIN MODE explores the wild, surreal experience of being a woman, writer, and mother in a world that's a mess.
Hagood harbors an inner "goblin," a voice in her head that's been taunting her since childhood. With the pandemic and the political dumpster fire that follows, the voice grows louder. GOBLIN MODE offers a glimpse into Hagood's goblin-mode life, recounting a feverish three-day stretch in which she encounters street flashers and talking parrots on the New York City subway, parents her two "spirited" children in her small, possibly-haunted Brooklyn apartment, and makes an ominous trip to a beautiful but eerie bioluminescent bay in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
Join us as Hagood talks to writer Amie Souza Reilly about her inspiration for GOBLIN MODE, and also, the challenges of being an artist and a mother during the pandemic and afterward, at a moment when nothing seems to make sense.
Parents are invited to bring their own little goblins. Kiddie crafts and light refreshments will be provided.
About the authors:

Caroline Hagood is the author of the poetry books, Lunatic Speaks (FutureCycle Press, 2012) and Making Maxine's Baby (Hanging Loose Press, 2015); the creative nonfiction books, Ways of Looking at a Woman (Hanging Loose Press, 2019) and Weird Girls: Writing the Art Monster (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022); and the novels, Ghosts of America (Hanging Loose Press, 2021) and Filthy Creation (MadHat Press 2023). Her book, Death and Other Speculative Fictions: An Essay in Prose Poems, is forthcoming from Spuyten Duyvil Press in January 2025. Her book, Women of Fantasy in Their Own Words: Conversations with Contemporary Authors, edited with Sébastien Doubinsky, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in December 2025. She lives in Brooklyn with her family and spends most of her time trying to get them to read weird books. Find her at carolinehagood.com.
Amie Souza Reilly is a visual artist and multigenre writer from Connecticut. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Wigleaf, HAD, The Chestnut Review, The Atticus Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, Barren, Pidgeonholes and elsewhere. She holds an MA in English Literature from Fordham University and an MFA from Fairfield University, and is the Writer-in-Residence and Director of Writing Studies at Sacred Heart University.

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