The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood

· Highbridge Audio · Narrated by C.S.E. Cooney
2 reviews
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8 hr 33 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

When Belle Boggs' "The Art of Waiting" was published in Orion in 2012, it went viral, leading to republication in Harper's Magazine and an interview on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show.

In that heartbreaking essay, Boggs eloquently recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around her—the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo—for signs that she is not alone. Boggs also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film Raising Arizona; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from Macbeth to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports, with great empathy, complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives.
When Belle Boggs' "The Art of Waiting" was published in Orion in 2012, it went viral, leading to republication in Harper's Magazine and an interview on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show. In that heartbreaking essay, Boggs eloquently recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She ...

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About the author

Belle Boggs is the author of Mattaponi Queen. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Ecotone, Slate, and many other publications. She teaches in the MFA program at North Carolina State University.

C. S. E. Cooney launched her voice-acting career narrating short fiction for Podcastle, the world's first audio fantasy magazine. She is a performance poet, singer-songwriter, and fantasy author whose collection Bone Swans has garnered starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Locus Magazine.

Belle Boggs is the author of Mattaponi Queen. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Ecotone, Slate, and many other publications. She teaches in the MFA program at North Carolina State University. C. S. E. Cooney launched her voice-acting career narrating short fiction for Podc...

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