Leave: A Postpartum Account - Paperback

by Shayne Terry (Author)

Shayne Terry's fourth trimester is not going as planned. Instead of bonding with her new baby, she's stuck on the couch with a third-degree tear, barely able to walk. When the women in her family show up to help, they come bearing family secrets and old wounds that also need repair. Begun as notes on Terry's phone documenting a parental leave gone awry, Leave examines a healing process complicated by capitalism, intergenerational trauma, and a healthcare system with a long history of devaluing women. This powerful postpartum account treats birth as a portal, one that can connect us to a lineage of pain, joy, death, and life. And at a time when our bodily autonomy is being stripped away, Leave is an urgent exploration of one woman's experience recovering from birth in America.

Author Biography

Shayne Terry's work has appeared in American Chordata, Catapult, Chicago Review of Books, CRAFT, Electric Literature, TriQuarterly, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and elsewhere. She has been selected for workshops and residencies at Bread Loaf, Tin House, and the Vermont Studio Center. Born and raised in northern Illinois, Shayne received an M.A. in Literature from University College Dublin and lives in Brooklyn.