Blame It on Eve | Sonora Jha, Namita Gokhale and Cat Bohannon with Kimberly A.C. Wilson - Video

The female body bears the burden of scrutiny and curtailment in the world’s gendered dynamics. Researcher and scholar Cat Bohannon sets out to remedy the neglect of women’s bodies in evolutionary biology in Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Years of Evolution. Academic and novelist Sonora Jha is the author of How To Raise A Feminist Son. Author and Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale's debut novel Paro: Dreams of Passion marked a cultural watershed in women's writing in India; her recent work with mythology places the feminine deities from the Indian Pantheon center stage. The three writers open different perspectives on women, their bodies and lives. In conversation with Kimberly A.C. Wilson, Executive Director, Hedgebrook.

Sonora Jha is the author of three books, most recently the novel The Laughter (2023), which was named a Best Book of 2023 by the New Yorker and NPR, amongst others. It was longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and won the AutHer Award for Best Fiction. Her memoir, How to Raise a Feminist Son (2021) has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Her debut novel, Foreign (2013) was a finalist for the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the Hindu Prize and was long listed for the DSC Prize. After a career in journalism in India and Singapore, Dr. Jha is now a professor of journalism and an associate dean at Seattle University.

Namita Gokhale is the author of twenty three-works of fiction and non-fiction. Her work spans different genres, including novels, short stories, Himalayan studies, mythology, anthologies, books for young readers, and a play. Her debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, published in 1984, has been issued as a Penguin Modern Classic. A new novel, Never Never Land, was published in 2024. Recent non-fiction includes Mystics and Sceptics: Searching Himalayan Masters and the anthology Treasures of Lakshmi. Co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival (with William Dalrymple), Gokhale is committed to platforming literary dialogue and showcasing the rich diversity of multilingual Indian identity. She is the recipient of various prizes and awards, including the prestigious Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Literature) Award.

Cat Bohannon is an award-winning researcher and author. She completed her PhD in 2022 at Columbia University, where she studied the evolution of narrative and cognition. Eve is her first book and a New York Times bestseller.

Kimberly A.C. Wilson is the Executive Director of Hedgebrook, a nonprofit writing retreat for women on Whidbey Island. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Kimberly covered criminal justice, natural disasters, government, and terrorism over a 21-year journalism career at The Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Baltimore Sun and Oregonian.

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