Jill Bialosky — The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother - with Marion Winik

Watch author Jill Bialosky's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother's funeral.

Now, with a poet's eye for detail and a novelist's flair for storytelling, Jill presents a profoundly moving elegy unlike any other. Starting with her mother's end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, The End Is the Beginning explores Iris's battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter's suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old. Compounding her challenges of raising four daughters without a livelihood or partner, Iris's life coincided with an age of unstoppable social change and reinvention, when the roles of wife and mother she was raised to inhabit ceased to be the guarantors of stability and happiness.

As we see Iris become younger and younger, we learn how we are all the sum of our experiences. Iris becomes a multi-dimensional, fascinating woman. We come to understand her difficulties and shortcomings, her neediness and her generosity, her pride and her despair. The End Is the Beginning is not just a family memoir, it is a brave and compassionate celebration of a woman's life and death and a window into a daughter's inextricable bond to her mother.

Jill Bialosky is the author of five acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently Asylum. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, among others. She is the author of many novels including, The Deceptions, and several works of nonfiction including The End Is the Beginning, History of a Suicide, and Poetry Will Save Your Life. In 2015, Jill was honored by the Poetry Society of America for her distinguished contribution to the field of poetry. She lives in New York City. Find out more at JillBialosky.com.

Bialosky is in conversation with Marion Winik. Winik is the author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (Counterpoint, 2019) and First Comes Love (Pantheon, 1996). Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011. A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award.

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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.

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