Session moderated by Elizabeth Gaffney
About the author
Courtney Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the largest international prize for short fiction. Other honors include fellowships from The Center for Fiction and MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review Daily and the New York Times, and her debut memoir, Spilt Milk (McSweeney’s 2021), was named a “must read” by Good Morning America, Publishers Weekly, LitHub, Refinery29, and others. Zoffness directs the creative writing program at Drew University.
MFOB featured book: Spilt Milk
What role does a mother play in raising thoughtful, generous children? In her literary debut, internationally award-winning writer Courtney Zoffness considers what we inherit from generations past―biologically, culturally, spiritually―and what we pass on to our children. Spilt Milk is an intimate, bracing, and beautiful exploration of vulnerability and culpability. Zoffness relives her childhood anxiety disorder as she witnesses it manifest in her firstborn; endures brazen sexual advances by a student in her class; grapples with the implications of her young son’s cop obsession; and challenges her Jewish faith. Where is the line between privacy and secrecy? How do the stories we tell inform who we become? These powerful, dynamic essays herald a vital new voice.
