How Understanding Your Mother's Story Can Help You Write Your Own with Award-Winning Author Gish Jen
In this episode, Sara Brown speaks with Gish Jen — award-winning author of The Resisters and the bestselling story collection Thank You, Mr. Nixon — about family, forgiveness, and the art of finding meaning in even our most complicated relationships. All of which come to a head in her new autobiographical novel Bad Bad Girl tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship inspired by the relationship she had with her own mother.
Born in New York to parents who emigrated from China, Gish has spent her career exploring identity, belonging, and the immigrant experience. In this conversation, she opens up about her relationship with her own mother, what it means to break generational patterns, and how humor and honesty can help us find compassion for the people who shaped us.
You’ll hear:
🌸 From Shanghai roots to shaping modern American literature
🩵 Mothers, daughters & the truthiest truths we live by
💥 Breaking generational patterns — and finding compassion for the people who shaped us
😏 Why great literature needs humor (and a little mischief)
🧠 A genius still asking: “Does my work make a difference?”
Gish reminds us that understanding our parents’ stories might be the key to writing our own — and that even the most “serious” art can be infused with joy.
📕 Purchase Bad Bad Girl here or wherever books are sold!
The Mothers is a production of Backline Media.
Music licensed via Artlist.io. Track: 'Out of My Head' by Letra. License FG1oIe.
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