In Conversation with Janine Kovac

A lyric exploration of motherhood, mental illness, and familial ties, Sarah C. Townsend’s debut work weaves together personal anecdote, film, music, visual art, and psychology. Setting the Wire is a visceral reflection on the experience of fragmentation as a young psychotherapist and new mother.

Sarah C. Townsend is the author of Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis. Her essays have appeared in The Writer in the World and Pitkin Review, and a coauthored paper with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl serves as a chapter in Subject to Biography: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Writing Women’s Lives. Sarah received her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College, her Master's in counseling psychology from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the College of Letters at Wesleyan University. She writes, teaches, and practices psychotherapy in and around Seattle, WA. You can learn more about her at SarahTownsendWriter.com.

Janine Kovac is a former professional ballet dancer and software engineer. Her memoir Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, chronicles the death of a career but the birth of miracle twins and was a semifinalist for Publisher Weekly's BookLife Prize. Janine is a talent wrangler for Litquake and a founding member of the 501(c)(3) writing group Write on Mamas. In 2016 she was awarded the Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship from Hedgebrook in addition to the gift of residency. The following year she co-founded Moxie Road Productions, a consulting firm that helps writers bring their ideas into the world. Janine lives in Oakland with her husband and three children.