Publisher Description
A wide range of women—actors, athletes, academics, CEOs, writers, small-business owners, birth workers, physicians, and activists—share their experiences of becoming mothers in this multifaceted, moving, and revealing collection. Throughout her difficult pregnancy and following her frightening labor experience, Amy Schumer found camaraderie and empowerment in hearing birth stories from other women, including those of her friend Christy Turlington Burns. Turlington Burns’s work in maternal health began after she experienced a childbirth-related complication in 2003—an experience that would later inspire her to direct and produce the documentary feature film No Woman, No Cry, about the challenges women face throughout pregnancy and childbirth around the world. It is through Schumer and Turlington Burns’s conversations that the idea for Arrival Stories was born. By sharing their experiences, the contributors to Arrival Stories offer an informative and deeply affecting account of what it feels like when a woman first realizes she is a mother. This beautiful collection features essays by: Serena Williams • Alysia Montaño • Abby G. Lopez • Amber Tamblyn • Shilpa Shah • Christy Turlington Burns • Emily Oster • Emma Hansen • Leslie Feist • Amanda Williams • Angel Geden • Adrienne Bosh • Latham Thomas • Rachel Feinstein • Ashley Graham • Jill Scott • Jennie Jeddry and Kim DeLise • La La Anthony • Shea Williams • Sienna Miller • Katrina Yoder • Amy Schumer Intimate and urgent, Arrival Stories offers a panoramic view of motherhood and highlights the grave injustices that women of color face in maternal healthcare. It is the perfect book for any expectant or new mother, or for anyone who knows and loves one.
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About Various
Karissa Vacker is a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator and actress. After graduating with a BFA in acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, she performed in regional theaters across the country before moving to Los Angeles. She has guest starred in network television shows and films and continues to work on screen and stage. Her audiobook credits include romance, young adult fiction, and mystery thrillers.
About the Narrators
Adenrele Ojo is an actress, dancer, and audiobook narrator, winner of over a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. She made her on-screen debut in My Little Girl, starring Jennifer Lopez, and has since starred in several other films. She has also performed extensively with the Philadelphia Dance Company. As the daughter of John E. Allen, Jr., founder and artistic director of Freedom Theatre, the oldest African American theater in Pennsylvania, is no stranger to the stage. In 2010 she performed in the Fountain Theatre’s production of The Ballad of Emmett Till, which won the 2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble. Other plays include August Wilson’s Jitney and Freedom Theatre’s own Black Nativity, where she played Mary.
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.
Amber Tamblyn is an actress and
an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. She stars in the television show
Joan of Arcadia and is also known for
playing Emily Bowen-Quartermaine on the soap opera General Hospital, on which she appeared from 1995 to 2001. She has
appeared on shows including Without a
Trace, CSI: Miami, and Boston Public and in the films The Ring and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Ashley Graham is a world-renowned model who has been featured in Vogue, Glamour, Elle UK, Style Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications. She is a body activist who speaks out about body positivity and self-acceptance, particularly for women.
Emily Oster is
an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago. She was a
speaker at the 2007 TED conference, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal, Forbes, and Esquire. She is married to
economist Jesse Shapiro and is also the daughter of two economists. She has one
child, Penelope.
Emma Hansen is a writer and model whose blog post about the passing of her first son, Reid, due to a true knot in his umbilical cord, went viral in 2015. Today, Hansen is trained as a full-spectrum doula and lives in Vancouver, Canada. She is the daughter of Rick Hansen, a former Paralympian and world-renowned disability activist.