Motherhood and Female Identity

Three local authors discuss their perspectives on motherhood and female identity

Local authors Kate Maxwell, Lana Citron and Michelle Shine discuss all this and more, from their own perspectives and in relation to their novels about these controversial subjects.

Kate Maxwell

Kate Maxwell read English at Oxford University and has worked as a journalist and editor in London and New York. Hush is her first novel and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award. She lives in London with her husband and children.

Lana Citron

Lana Citron is the award-winning Irish author of five novels:  Sucker, Spilt Milk, Transit, The Honey Trap, and The Brodsky Touch, and two non-fiction books, Edible Pleasures and A Compendium of Kisses. Published in the US, Japan and translated into many European languages, Citron’s work embraces short stories, poems and articles. Her podcast The Diary of an Accidental Mother was originally published as a blog in the Huffington Post. Plays and film scripts include BBC Radio4’s afternoon drama The Love Saboteur and the multi-award-winning short films I was the Cigarette Girl and Hannah Cohen’s Holy Communion. 

Michelle Shine

Michelle Shine was born in London in 1956 and lives in Hampstead. She is the author of Song for Ria, a contemporary novel about a grief that leads to perspicacity, and Mesmerised, a novel about the Impressionists, narrated by their friend, fellow artist, doctor and homeopath Paul Gachet. Her novella The Subtle Art of Healing was longlisted for the Cinnamon Press award in 2007. Her short stories have appeared at Liars League and in several literary magazines and collections. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck.