Reviews of under my bed and other essays
(click on title to read the review)
Publisher’s Weekly Review “Keisner debuts with a riveting essay collection that revisits her painful past…The essays attack difficult material straight on, but Keisner’s smart, clear, and incisive writing cuts deep.”
Brevity’s Blog Review by Jeannine Ouellette “Keisner interrogates fear—personal and collective—from one sharp angle after the next, with a special acuity for the fears known best by women and mothers.”
Hippocampus Review by Nicole Graev Lipson “As she faces her worries head on, Keisner grants herself—and her readers—access to the deeper, more sustaining forces that underlie our anxieties: attachment, devotion, joy, and an exquisite awareness of the preciousness of life. What we most fear, her writing reminds us, reveals what we most treasure. The greatest triumph of Under My Bed and Other Essays is how masterfully Keisner captures this inescapable tension.”
Adroit Review by Elizabeth Fiala “Through Keisner’s blend of beautiful prose and the breadth of research she uses to examine her own fears, I found comfort in knowing I’m not alone, and that, like Keisner discovers, ‘some fears—and pain—are written in the language of the body from birth.’”
Story Circle Network Review by Susan J. Tweit “Under My Bed is a tender book, an honest book, and a rich tale of learning to thrive just as we are–flawed and imperfect, yet still fully capable of risking both growth and love.”
Washington Independent Review of Books by Alice Stephens “Ultimately, it is women who heal other women. The author's grandmother's parting advice to her is, 'Don’t be afraid.' With these essays, Jody Keisner both enumerates the many reasons women should be afraid and the many ways grace and strength carry them past that fear and onto empowerment.”
GXRL Review by Ashley Espinoza “Keisner voices what so many women fear: we fear what may be done to our bodies, not only by other people, but at times by what our own bodies do to us.”
Mom Egg Review by Emily Webber “Through the course of these essays, in addition to exploring Keisner’s fear and our culture of violence, a surprising and compelling narrative emerges that details the history of the women in her family, her father’s life, and Keisner’s own experiences with motherhood and adoption…Under My Bed offers a complex, compelling, and multi-faceted look at the origins of fear, motherhood, and forgiveness.”
Split Rock Review by Whitney (Walters) Jacobson “Keisner expertly braids together her life’s stories with research to guide readers through the immediate experience of fear as well as the effort to reckon with it.”
NewPages Review by Olga Montenegro “Keisner offers an exploration of female-bodied anxiety through beautifully curated pieces with profound research that both enriches and empowers the reader.”
selected radio and Podcast appearances
Interview with Tom Knoblauch for Riverside Chats, Nebraska Public Radio
Interview with Michael Wheaton for The Lives of Writers Podcast
Interview with Genevieve Randall at Friday LIVE, Nebraska Public Media, A Conversation about Adoption (42 minute mark)
Interview with Lauren Gilger for The Show, National Pubic Radio Affiliate, Phoenix, AZ
Interviews
Feature Articles