Let’s be honest. We writers dream that the books that live inside us will find their way into bookstores, libraries, and homes, will come to life in the hands of avid readers under shady hammocks or in favorite chairs. These books will have splendid covers and rave reviews that honor the love we put into the process. But for many aspiring writers, the journey between finishing a manuscript and launching a book is veiled in mystery. The cogs and wheels of publishing are strangely opaque to the authors themselves. This Birthing the Book Series will both illuminate the process, and more importantly celebrate authors who have recently “birthed” their books.

The Loneliness Files by Athena Dixon is a groundbreaking memoir in essays that asks: what does it mean to be a body behind a screen, lost in the hustle of an online world? In our age of digital hyper-connection, Athena Dixon invites us to consider this question with depth, heart, and ferocity, investigating the gaps that technology cannot fill and confronting a lifetime of loneliness.

This Birthing the Book session will be moderated by Tonya Abari, Porch instructor and facilitator of the Nashville Black Storytellers.

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Born and raised in NE Ohio, Athena Dixon is the author of the essay collections The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split/Lip Press) and The Loneliness Files (Tin House). Her work also appears in publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Shenandoah, Grub Street, Narratively, and Lit Hub among others. She is a Consulting Editor for Fourth Genre and serves as the Nonfiction/Hybrid Editor for Split/Lip Press. She resides in Philadelphia.