A Birth Amid Death
Newsletter Archive April 8, 2021
Wow — we are completely blown away by the response Hindsight has received so far. We have received stories from people in more than 10 countries, all of them offering a glimpse into their lives during this strange moment in human history. And as grateful as we are for submissions, we’d like to take a moment to thank you for signing up for our newsletter, Unmasked. This is a channel through which we will share excerpts, author interviews, updates on release dates, special offers, and more.
If you follow Hindsight on social media, you’ve already seen some highlights from stories that will appear in our book, such as "Postpartum" by Blair Hurley. Hurley is the author of the very first submission that was accepted for publication. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Electric Literature, Guernica, New England Review, and more. She published her debut novel, The Devoted, in 2018, but at the beginning of last year, Hurley was laboring over another task: giving birth to her first child.
It wasn’t long after the shelter-in-place orders were imposed last March that Hurley realized there was a story unfolding before her eyes.
Blair Hurley
“After having my first child just a few days before the pandemic and lockdowns began, I knew I needed to document the experience of new parenthood during this time," she says. "Parenthood is already an isolating experience in the early days and weeks, and it was particularly strange to know most of the world was experiencing a similar isolation at the same time.”
Hurley’s story describes one of the most exciting and emotional moments of her life as the rest of the world slipped further into chaos. What follow is an excerpt from “Postpartum”:
"We didn’t hear much about the virus for the two days I spent in the hospital, fragile and bleeding, my husband curled on the couch, her in a plexiglass bassinet beside us, fascinating and beautiful. The outside world was the view outside my window and nothing more — parking lot, roll of muddy hills, watery spring sunrise. The world could wait. We returned home and consumed ourselves with learning how to feed her, diaper her, soothe her, overwhelmed and exhausted. My sister came to help and slipped into the country days before the borders closed. My mother had died five years ago. I knew I’d feel her absence when I was holding my daughter in my arms, but now her lack was sharp and frightening. No one in our locked-down household knew what we were doing. We didn’t know what it meant when she sighed or moaned or cried, we didn’t know how to hold her or feed her. I remembered the breathless, awestruck feeling I had when I first took the test and saw the faint blue line and felt suddenly responsible for a life. She needed me, and the world was falling apart.”
A special thank you to Blair for sharing her powerful, personal story. The full version of “Postpartum” will appear in the print edition of Hindsight when it is published later this year.