Madden - Long live the tribe of fatherless girls: a memoir

Praise for Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is sad, funny, juicy, and prickly with deep and secret thoughtful places. It is raucous and poignant at once and I recommend it highly.

Mary Gaitskill, author of The Mare and Somebody with a Little Hammer

Harrowing and beautiful. What seems most miraculous about Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is the way T Kira Madden forges out of such achingly difficult material a memoir as frank and funny and powerful and surprising as this, her utterly gorgeous debut.

Lauren Groff, author of Florida and Fates and Furies

With Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls , T Kira Madden comes first to break your heart: make no mistake, this is a heartbreaking book. Even better, Madden has come to break your heart open : to crack your heart wide, to spill out the hearts grief and pain so she can fill it back up with joy and beauty and love. Give in, give up, give yourself up to this book: it is on your side, on all our sides.

Matt Bell, author of Scrapper

Ive never read such a gorgeous and raw depiction of girlhood, the terrible vulnerability of adolescence, and the humiliation that often goes hand in hand with desire. Madden is fearless about diving deep into the darkest aspects of herself and her past, and thats what makes her work riveting and urgent. An absolutely necessary book.

Julie Buntin, author of Marlena

An intersectional memoir felt in the flesh, set in the sweltering, scandalous southernmost state at the height of its grunge and glamour. T Kira Madden is an acute observer of her family, her environment, and her own mind, and is generous despiteor perhaps because ofwhat shes endured. Her bleeding, gorgeous prose will get under your skin and leave you aching in love. Her first book is a triumph.

Sarah Gerard, author of Sunshine State

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls reminds us beautifully that we are unshielded, that we are blessed with life only by a narrow and undecipherable margin. This book has grit and a feisty elegance I love, and I love the mess and tenderness here of being and having been a girl.

Noy Holland, author of I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like

This memoir is as hopeful as it is hard, as big-hearted as it is bold in its scrutiny of the unrelenting joys and terrors of being a girl. Maddens prose will hypnotize you as it wrings every drop of beauty out of her story. If youve ever known the predicament of having a magical and messy family, a female body, or the mixed blessing of a big heart and a keen mind in a troubled world, then you need this book as much as I did.

Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

What are the ties that bind us, the events that shape us? In this beautiful memoir T Kira Madden confronts these questions, unflinchingly, with breathtaking honesty. Reminiscent of The Glass Castle , her unique vision and voice take us into the depths of her astonishing experience. Yet what is most startling is that she writes sentences that I feel Ive never read before. I dont think anyone has.

Mary Morris, author of The Jazz Palace and Gateway to the Moon

T Kira Maddens exquisitely crafted memoircompassionate and tender, yet mercilessly directdraws you into a tribe where grief is bigger than the body and growing up is something that happens to you your entire life. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girl s is a wrenching story of longing, loss, and extraordinary coincidencea debut act of courage and ferocious beauty from a formidable new talent.

Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light

Madden perfectly captures the ache of a child trying to find her place. You may not be a competitive equestrian, a Floridian, or the mixed-race child of two parents who struggle with addiction; you may have never fallen in love with another woman; but everyone who has ever longed for more love will understand.

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is a triumph. Its for anyone reading late into the night wondering, will I survive this? T Kira Madden tells us, as only she can, that the answer is yes. Its a journey through the dark heart of family love and the cosmic mystery of queer youth and you dont want to miss it. This book reminded me how books can save.

Genevieve Hudson, author of A Little in Love with Everyone

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is a spell that turns Madden into the best friend our former selves needed so badly. A friend who shows us ourselves with tenderness. This book is a dark powerhouse of yearning and reckoning that reminds us all of the girl weve spent our lives trying to grow out ofand all the ways we punish her for sticking around.

Tatiana Ryckman, author of I Dont Think of You (Until I Do)

Maddens language shimmers and scorches as she crafts this brilliantly frank portrait of girlhood that is also a love letter to a mother, a eulogy for a father. I loved this book for its big-hearted, aching renderings of sexuality, addiction, and family, for its exquisite attentiveness, and in the end for its hope that a family can grow to embrace all its been and might become.

Kristin Dombek, author of The Selfishness of Others

Stunningly crafted and a true page-turner, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls thrums with power, beauty, and truth, the makings of a modern classic. In T Kira Maddens hands, loves light refracts. The result is a vivid portrait of queer awakening set against the devastating backdrop of addiction, loss, and, ultimately, triumphant reclamation. I finished this book blinded by tears and a deep appreciation for Maddens undeniable talent. She is a force to be braced for, and heralded.

Allie Rowbottom, author of JELL-O Girls

for my mother and father

CONTENTS

You remember too much,

my mother said to me recently.

Why hold onto all that? And I said,

Where can I put it down?

Anne Carson, The Glass Essay

While the material in this book comprises extensive research, interview content, photographs, and journals, much of it is based on memory, which is discrete, impressionable, and shaped by the body inside of which it lives.

For instance: the women. From the television commercial thats been looping for as long as I can remember, featuring the first song I ever memorized. In the commercial, white women in lime-green bikinis walk barefoot and elegant across the smooth deck of a yacht. Their steps have bounce to them; their thongs are amazing. The women flip their hair at the sun, and beads of seawater drip onto their shoulders, down the creases between their breasts. The droplets roll and glitter over their bodies like mercury from a smashed thermometer. A man sings: Naturally youre lookin good, you look just like you dreamed you would! Youre having fun, youre at your best, and all it took was Just One Look! Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery: just one look is worth a thousand words! His girls are so pleased to be beautiful, his.