Books

A manifesto for middle age

Kaya Oakes seeks the wisdom of women who are young, old, crazy, barren, butch, femme, angry, other, and alone

“How are your children?” asked a colleague. We hadn’t seen each other in person for a while due to the pandemic.

I stared at him. “I don’t have children,” I reminded him. “In fact, I’m writing a book about being childless.”

“Oh,” he said. “I wonder why I thought you had them.”