Why subscribe?

You might want to subscribe to Ancestor Trouble if the name makes intuitive sense to you. While this newsletter is related to my forthcoming book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation (Random House, March 29, 2022), it’s also deeply related to complications and yearnings around ancestry writ large. These are my notes around the edges, things I’m still mulling over or learning about, as well as other people’s work I’m drawn to on the subject.

I’m also increasingly interested in earth connection and the possibilities that open up when we look beyond humanity to the rest of the world as kin.

Some posts to give you a sense of what I do here:

• Acknowledgement Genealogy and Ancestor Trouble

• Ancestor-Focused Spiritual Practices

• Ancestor Hunger Miscellany

• DNA Testing Giveth, and Taketh Away

• Lineage Unconscious

• The Family Face—And Gesture?

(To avoid confusion, I recently changed the name of this newsletter from Ancestor Hunger to Ancestor Trouble. They're often close cousins, in my experience! But with the book on the way, I don't want to have two different titles floating around.)

Testimonials!

• “I always enjoy and learn so much from @maudnewton AncestorHunger. Tiding me over until her book.” — Dionne Ford, writer and editor of Slavery’s Descendants

• “Ancestor Hunger, @maudnewton's newsletter, is a great read for anyone thinking about familial bonds and why (if?) they matter.” — Allison Wright, Executive Editor at Virginia Quarterly Review

• “Give it a look, and see if your dreams don’t get a bit messed up.” — Darrell Reimer, Whisky Prajer

• “I wish I could read @maudnewton's book right now...” — Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City and The Ghosts of Eden Park

• “I just subscribed.” — Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance, Family History, Devotion, and many other books

• “It’s always good news when there’s a new message from @maudnewton.” —Carolyn Kellogg, writer, critic, former LA Times books editor

• “Subscribe for religious and other beautiful things.” — Kate McKean, literary agent and writer

• “One of my favorite reads, and I think you should subscribe.”—Meg Conley, writer

• “If you're as obsessed with ancestors and ancestry as I am check it out, sign up, read your heart out.”—Dani Burlison, writer

How It Works

The newsletter is free, and I’m aiming to send it monthly.