Welcome to a special live episode of Writer Mother Monster, a community and conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. The show is typically streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, and then released as an audio podcast on all major platforms--but today's episode is in-person at the 2023 CT Lit Fest, hosted at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut.

Today's guest, Dr. Janet Garcia-Hallett, is a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven's Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences. She earned her PhD in criminal justice from Rutgers University-Newark in 2017. From 2017 to 2021, she worked as a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. At this point, during the pandemic, Janet made the decision to move back to the East Coast to be closer to family and a support network. As an Afro-Latina mother, Janet has maintained a personal interest in mothers' experiences before, during, and after incarceration. Her non-fiction book, INVISIBLE MOTHERS: UNSEEN YET HYPERVISIBLE AFTER INCARCERATION is based on interviews she conducted throughout New York City with formerly incarcerated mothers of color. Her book shares mothers' stories and explores how mothers of color navigate motherhood post-incarceration. Although Janet was first drawn to this work due to her upbringing in Harlem, she continues to study the impact of the criminal legal system and advocate for communities of color. Janet has 3 children ages 7, 4, and 2,, and she describes writer-motherhood in 3 words as Versatile, Determine, Badass.

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