Kami Westhoff, The Criteria - IN PERSON

Village Books is pleased to welcome WWU professor Kami Westhoff back to the Readings Gallery!

We are still operating at a limited capacity so we recommend pre-registering on Eventbrite. 

COVID protocol for our in-person events requires proof of full vaccination upon arrival. Masking is optional. Thank you for your cooperation.

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The Criteria explores unconventional, and at times highly problematic, motherhood. The characters struggle with impossible choices that often lead to heartbreaking behaviors. In the titular story, the main character takes on the burden of breastfeeding infants whose mothers have fallen in while at the same time struggling with the fate of her own infant. Another story imagines a scenario in which the mother/child bond is prohibited, and drastic measures taken to ensure its prevention. The characters are asked to suffer many tragedies, as well as to embrace hope in the most unlikely places.

Kami Westhoff is an award-winning poet and short story writer. She's the author of story collection The Criteria, and three poetry chapbooks, including Sleepwalker, winner of Minerva Rising's Dare to Be Contest and Your Body a Bullet, co-written with Elizabeth Vignali. Her prose has appeared in various journals including Booth, Carve, Hippocampus, Passages North, Meridian, Waxwing, and West Branch. She teaches creative writing at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.

*Online registration closes one hour prior to the event. Spaces may be available at the door.