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Author Talk with Jean Trounstine: Motherlove on Zoom

Jean Trounstine will share about her first work of fiction, Motherlove.

Motherlove is the powerful short-story collection from Jean Trounstine, an acclaimed writer and social-justice activist with a deep knowledge of the US prison system—and its devastating impact on our communities in Massachusetts and beyond. In Motherlove, she turns her sharp eye on an often-forgotten group—the mothers of children who kill.

With deft writing and deep empathy, Trounstine explores the stories of ten mothers, each struggling with the aftermath of murder. While fictional, Trounstine’s characters are drawn from her more than thirty years of experience with prisoners and their families, making her stories all the more real and resonant.

Keyma Mack and his mother Cherry whose lives have been touched by prison will join Trounstine in the talk about how fact becomes fiction. Keyma and his mother were the inspiration for one of Trounstine's stories. 

Copies of Motherlove will be offered for free to attendees by Concord Free Press with a suggested charitable donation. 

Jean Trounstine is an author, activist, and educator who has written extensively about the criminal legal system in America. She worked at Framingham Women’s Prison for a decade, where she directed eight plays for prisoners—resulting in her highly praised book, Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison. Her groundbreaking work is considered the first Shakespeare program launched in the U.S.

Trounstine has spoken throughout the world about women in prison, and co-founded the women’s branch of Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL), an innovative alternative sentencing program. In 2018, she was invited to Italy and awarded the Gramsci International Award for Theatre in Prison for her 30 years of work in literature and theater. 

Motherlove is the first fiction work from Trounstine, author of six other books—from poetry to nonfiction—including Boy with a Knife: A Story of Murder, Remorse, and a Prisoner’s Fight for Justice.

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