Linea Nigra

“Part notebook, part audiovisual anthology, Barrera’s hybrid essay Linea Nigra is not your typical book on motherhood. Instead it’s a collection that serves as representation—a comprehensive ‘compilation of images, citations, and references from women who have conceived of pregnancy, birth, and lactation through art and literature.’” —The Millions (Most Anticipated 2022)

“Barrera offers a moving study of pregnancy, family, art, and loss in this showstopping essay…[her] voice is meditative, bolstered by poetic turns of phrase, precise language, and fresh metaphors. ‘It’s impossible to be original when you write about being a mother,’ Barrera reflects, though her own originality is striking. This beautiful meditation is thick with profound insights.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Barrera includes historical anecdotes and quotes from other women who have written about motherhood, childbirth, and pregnancy—from Mary Shelley and Natalia Ginzburg to Rivka Galchen and Maggie Nelson—and she argues that pregnancy is a fundamentally literary experience.…Barrera communicates her trenchant observations in gorgeous, highly efficient prose that sharply reflects the fragmented reality of pregnancy and early parenthood. Rather than adhering to a traditional narrative structure, the author follows her trains of thought wherever they take her, and readers will be happy to tag along.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This book is such a wonder and a joy. I only wish it were a few thousand pages longer, so I could have the company of its intelligence and poetry for all the phases of my life.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

“There is a moment in Linea Nigra where Jazmina Barrera looks at the reflection of a solar eclipse in a puddle. Barrera has a gift of obliquely looking at obvious things (in this case, pregnancy, and previously, lighthouses in On Lighthouses). Her perspective delivers deep clarity and is a joy to read. In nuanced observation, and with enormous humor, she shares how things and people can be known and understood, while allowing, as in life and death—for what can never be known, or understood.” —Leanne Shapton, author of Guestbook

“Barrera writes unflinchingly about motherhood—the minutiae, the hours nursing, the desire to make art despite exhaustion, the stitches no one talks about, the violence and beauty of birth—and creates an unforgettable tapestry that feels at once poetic and urgent. Reading Linea Nigra, I felt like I was sitting around a wise woman circle, a little more of my mother and artist self revived with each passing page. I am grateful this beautiful book exists, stares without looking away, and offers to each of us the motherhood that mainstream society doesn’t sell us. This is the real shit, and it is vital.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot

“An absolutely perfect book about mothering, writing, dismantling literary form.” —Madeleine Watts, author of The Inland Sea

“An amazing book that takes the topic of motherhood and, before the incredulous eyes of the reader, impregnates it with many other things: the body, the concept of individuality, illness, and emotional attachments.” —Emiliano Monge, author of Among the Lost

“Linea Nigra narrates the period of human gestation with such estrangement that it carries it into the genre of gothic literature. A novel that both perturbs and moves the reader.”—Guadalupe Nettel, author of After the Winter

“Linea Nigra is a rallying cry for motherhood to be taken seriously, for a maternal canon. In putting forth this rallying cry, Barrera also delivers a prime example of why one should exist.” —Lauren Cocking, Leyendo Lat Am

“At once both a meditation on and celebration of motherhood, Linea Nigra joins an elite lineage of maternal texts entwining the rituals of human, natural, and artistic creation. The result is astonishing—a beautiful book full of revelations on the depths of human connection, both with each other and the world around us.” —Josie Smith, Madison Street Books (Chicago, IL)

“This slim volume navigates Barrera’s pregnancy, birth, and those first shattering days of early motherhood. In snippets reminiscent of the short breaks in between wakings and feedings, Barrera interweaves her reading life and lived life, creating a poignant primer that will be a kindred comfort and stalwart courage to anyone experiencing the throes of pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood. Linea Nigra is a rich record of a life steeped in feminist art.” —Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA)

“In this beautiful and bold celebration of motherhood, Barrera compares the experience to an earthquake to the body. She documents all the changes, transformations and instability postpartum, told with warmth and humor. Like Maggie Nelson and Rachel Cusk before her, Barrera paints a candid portrait of motherhood that is a welcome addition to the canon.” —Michelle Leung, Toronto Public Library

“Another wonderful and insightful book from Jazmina Barrera. The beautiful details of Jazmina’s writing paired with the intimacies woven into the thoughts of everyday life allows for a deep understanding of both a individual and collective experience.” —Katie Kenney, Bank Square Books (Mystic, CT)