Welcome to Ancestor Trouble

I’m Maud Newton, a writer, critic, amateur genealogist, and native ecosystem restoration enthusiast. I'm interested in books, art, psychology, ancestors, and kinship, broadly construed. I believe in the power of acknowledging troubled family histories honestly, open-heartedly, and with imagination.

My book, also called Ancestor Trouble, was a best of the year per the New Yorker, NPR, Washington Post, Time, Esquire, The Boston Globe, Garden & Gun, Entertainment Weekly, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Chicago Tribune. Ancestor Trouble was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and a Roxane Gay book club pick.

I grew up steeped in Christian fundamentalism and various permutations of the Protestant church, from staid to tongues-speaking. I often write about the ironies of evangelical intolerance, and the very real harm it inflicts. I’m interested earth reverence, by which I mostly mean the possibilities that open up when we look beyond humanity to the whole of earth as our kin.

This newsletter is always free, and I do my best to send it once or twice a month.

My pronouns are she/her.
I live on the unceded land of the Lenape people in Queens, New York.
You can read more about me over on my website.

Subscribe to Ancestor Trouble

Writing, books, art. Kinship, broadly construed. Advocate for acknowledging tough family histories honestly, open-heartedly, and with imagination.

People

Maud Newton

@maudnewton

I'm interested in books, art, psychology, ancestors, and kinship, broadly construed. My book, Ancestor Trouble, was a best of the year per New Yorker, NPR, Washington Post, Esquire; a John Leonard prize finalist; and a Roxane Gay pick. She/her.