At 36 years old, Caitlin Myer is ready to start a family with her husband. She has left behind the restrictive confines of her Mormon upbringing and early sexual trauma, and believes she is now living her happily ever after. In a single week, she suffers the twin losses of a hysterectomy and the death of her mother, and is jolted into a terrible awakening that forces her to reckon with her past—and future. Myer's electric debut memoir Wiving is the story of one woman’s “escape” from religion at age 20, only to find herself similarly entrapped in the gender conventions of the secular culture at large. The biblical characters Yael and Judith, wives who became assassins, become her totems as she evolves from wifely submission to warrior independence. In conversation with author Joe Loya. FREE, $5 suggested donation

About Litquake
Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. We believe in literature as a public good, so we work to produce events that are accessible to all. www.litquake.org

Litquake is grateful for the support of the following funders who help make our programming possible. Institutional Giving: Adobe Employee Community Fund, Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, California Arts Council, California College of the Arts, California Institute of Integral Studies, Center for the Art of Translation, California Humanities, Chronicle Books, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Fleishhacker Family Foundation, Grants for the Arts, HarperOne, Margaret and William R. Hearst III Foundation, Mary A. Crocker Trust, Miner Anderson Family Foundation, Mystery Writers of America, Northern California Chapter, National Endowment for the Arts, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, Stanford Continuing Studies, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Zellerbach Foundation. Individual Giving: Frances Dinkelspiel and Gary Wayne, Margaret and Will Hearst, Scott James and Gerald Cain, Nion McEvoy, Craig Newmark, and Nicole Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson. Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle, 7 X 7, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, Johnny Funcheap, and KALW 91.7