Maud’s 2011 essay “May 21: The Rapture Meets My 40th Birthday” was reprinted in The Awl<\/em> anthology<\/a>, which was edited by Carrie Frye<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a National Genealogical Society Quarterly<\/em> review<\/a>, Maud Newton’s Ancestor Trouble<\/em> is characterized<\/a> as fascinating, fun, engaging, and relatably meandering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Rapture Basement<\/a>,” Newton’s first short story in many years, was published by Narrative Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton’s endorsement for the pronoun “y’all” gets a nod<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For The Baffler,<\/em> Newton investigates<\/a> the transphobic evangelicals hawking hormones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Slate,<\/em> Newton writes about<\/a> the money her mother and stepdad give to extreme evangelical Christian preachers \u2014 and the “news” they get from Kenneth Copeland’s Christian nationalist Victory Channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Atlantic, <\/em>Tajja Isen calls Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a> a meticulous, engaging, clear-eyed reckoning, and “a panoramic case for the value of honoring and reconciling one\u2019s relationship to a challenging heritage.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton appears on The Colin McEnroe Show to discuss ancestors<\/a> and Ancestor Trouble<\/em> in an hour also featuring Jenny Strauss (great-granddaughter of Lewis Strauss). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophia Nguyen wondered if<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> might make Obama’s summer 2023 book list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton reviews<\/a> Leah Myers\u2019 Thinning Blood<\/a>,<\/em> calling it “a finely crafted totem pole of a first book,” for the New York Times Book Review<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ancestor Trouble<\/em> was the March 2023 selection for Yahdon Israel’s<\/a> Literary Swag Book Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton reviewed<\/a> Rachel Jamison Webster’s first book, Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family<\/a>,<\/em> for the Washington Post Book World<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the National Book Critics Circle chose Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as one of seven finalists<\/a>, and the only nonfiction book, for the 2023 John Leonard Prize for the best first book in any genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ancestor Trouble<\/em> was named a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker<\/a><\/em>, NPR<\/a>, The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, Time<\/em><\/a>, The Boston Globe<\/a><\/em>, Esquire<\/a><\/em>, Garden & Gun<\/a><\/em>, Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/em>, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a><\/em>, and Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the WSJ’s<\/em> year-end reading section, Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba,<\/em> calls<\/a> Ancestor Trouble <\/em>“a fascinating and wide-ranging meditation on how and why the stories of our own dead matter.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton wrote a letter of recommendation<\/a> for \u201cy’all,\u201d the most inclusive pronoun, in the New York Times Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExtraordinary and wide-ranging . . . a literary feat that simultaneously builds and excavates identity.\u201d Kerri Arsenault praised<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> in the New York Times Book Review. <\/em>On the book review podcast, Newton talked<\/a> with editor John Williams. Ancestor Trouble<\/em> was also an Editors’ Choice pick<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton spoke with Ari Shapiro<\/a> about Ancestor Trouble<\/em> for All Things Considered.<\/em> NPR also included the book<\/a> among its Books We Love 2022. And reviewer Kristen Martin praised<\/a> Newton’s critical eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton wrote<\/a> for The Guardian US<\/em> about the importance and power of acknowledging the wrongs of individual ancestors who enslaved Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ancestor Trouble<\/em> was Roxane Gay’s April 2022 book club selection<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing for the Boston Globe,<\/em> Lorraine Berry calls<\/a> Ancestor Trouble a \u201cbrilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation\u201d and “beautiful and complexly nuanced,\u201d with \u201cmemoir parts [that] read like a suspense novel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esquire<\/em>‘s Adrienne Westenfeld names Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a> one of the best books of the year. The magazine also ran an extended first serial excerpt<\/a> from the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Washington Post includes<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> among its recommended summer reads, calling the book “a kind of personal reconciliation project, boosted by lyrical writing and wide-ranging scholarship.” And in a review<\/a>, Libby Copeland calls <\/em>the book “a valuable and bracing portrait.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Including Ancestor Trouble<\/em> among his best books of 2022, John Warner of Chicago Tribune’s <\/em>Biblioracle says<\/a>, “I think we\u2019re going to look back on this book as a classic in the way it blends historical research, science, personal memoir and philosophy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time<\/em> featured<\/a> an adapted excerpt on Newton’s mysterious great-great aunt and self-given namesake Maude Newton, who turned out to have been a writer, but not the kind Newton would have hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe stories we tell ourselves about our ancestors have the power to shape us, in some ways nearly as much as our genetics do.\u201d The Wall Street Journal<\/em> featured an excerpt<\/a> from Ancestor Trouble<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Ancestor Trouble <\/em>does what all truly great memoirs do: It takes an intensely personal… story and uses it to frame larger, more complex questions about how identity is formed,” Colin Dickey writes<\/a> at New Republic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ali Muldrow of WORT’s A Public Affair<\/em> interviewed Newton<\/a> about reckoning with family history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Writer Shawna Seed talked with<\/a> Newton for the Dallas Morning News<\/em> about Newton’s book and family history, and “the pull of her Texan roots.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marion Winik of WYPR’s The Weekly Reader<\/em> recommends<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> and All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days<\/em> as memoirs “distilled from fragments and legends of past generations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommending the book for the Los Angeles Times,<\/em> Bethanne Patrick praises Ancestor Trouble’s<\/em><\/a> “fluid, thoughtful prose about family and falsehoods.” And in a mixed review<\/a> for the publication, Mary Ann Gwinn calls Newton “a logical thinker and a hyperacute observer, with a prodigious memory and a lacerating honesty… a transparent and at times lyrical writer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keziah Weir includes<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> among the books recommended by Vanity Fair<\/em> staff in April and also recommends<\/a> the book in her May column, alongside Itabari Njeri’s 1990 classic Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the New York Times<\/em>‘ list of anticipated March books, Joumana Khatib leads with Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a>, noting that Newton “touches on intergenerational trauma, mental illness, the influence of religion and more.” Amanda Hess, critic-at-large on the New York Times <\/em>culture desk, also recommended<\/a> the book. And Sam Sifton gave Ancestor Trouble<\/em> a nice mention<\/a> in his cooking newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing for the AJC, <\/em>Jeff Calder calls Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a> “captivating,” and says the book is distinguished by “wide learning and roving speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reviewing for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, <\/em>Katherine A. Powers judges<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> a \u201cpassionate memoir and investigation of inheritance and bloodlines” and a “fascinating, well written book,\u201d in a mixed review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “At a moment of reckoning over America\u2019s violent history, [Ancestor Trouble<\/em>] is a salutary call for an ‘acknowledgment genealogy’ of the harms that are hidden in many family trees,” Alix Christie writes<\/a>, in a review for the Economist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Surya Hendry talked with<\/a> Newton for Identity Theory,<\/em> discussing data weaponization, spiritual approaches to ancestors, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books, <\/em>Lesley Heiser cites<\/a> the “beauty, poignancy, and power” of Ancestor Trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt Hanson profiled<\/a> Newton for The Daily Beast, <\/em>citing the book’s deep research and characterizing Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as “a sprawling and lively family saga.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a starred review of Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Kirkus’ reviewer called the book “Exhaustively researched, engagingly presented, and glowing with intelligence and honesty.” Kirkus listed also Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as one of “13 Books With Word-of-Mouth Buzz<\/a>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Making it personal is the most powerful force we have for change.” Harvey Freedenberg profiled Newton<\/a> for BookPage and also gave the book a starred review<\/a>, calling Ancestor Trouble<\/em> a “revealing family memoir with a well-researched and thoughtful exploration of heredity and genealogy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Shondaland, Sarah Neilson interviewed<\/a> Newton and says her “discoveries and reckonings with her family history serve as a doorway into a vast and beautifully reported story.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Newton’s book feels painfully relevant.” Ancestor Trouble<\/em> makes Wired’s<\/em> list<\/a> of books to read this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chiara Atoyebi calls<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> “an engaging memoir about the quest for truth and the unanswered questions buried deep within [Newton’s] own ancestry,” in Bust<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bitter Southerner’s Alison Law recommends<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as an ideal summer book for “readers who have bought a DNA ancestry kit or wondered if those tidbits of family folklore were really true.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bloom’s<\/em> Lisa Peet interviewed<\/a> Newton about ancestors, imaginative spirituality, and old-school blogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writer and critic Jessie Daniels talked with<\/a> Newton for Dame Magazine<\/em> about how white people can reckon with their racist family histories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “An Open Heart, Armor Down<\/a>“: Newton spoke with fellow writer Ann Leary (The Foundling<\/em>) as a supplement to their earlier conversation at the Center for Fiction<\/a> on echoes of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newton appeared on<\/a> WNYC’s All of It<\/em> to discuss reckoning with the actions of ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For New York Magazine’s<\/em> Vulture, Emma Alpern includes Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/a> among the best new and upcoming releases in March.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n At The New Yorker,<\/em> Maya Jasanoff considers<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as a jumping-off point for \u2014 and throughout \u2014 her criticism of current and past approaches to ancestors and genealogy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Steban Rondon, a student at Miami’s Florida International University, profiled Newton<\/a> for the South Florida Media Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leslie Lindsay interviewed<\/a> Newton for Hippocampus Magazine,<\/em> calling Ancestor Trouble<\/em> “an extraordinary deep dive into the author\u2019s family tree” while praising the book’s “historical and scientific relevance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a positive review for The Baffler,<\/em> Matt Hanson contends<\/a> that Ancestor Trouble<\/em> “isn\u2019t so much about Newton chopping down her family tree as climbing as far up into it as she can, plucking some of the rotten fruit and clearing out some of the overgrown brush.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing for FTW Today, <\/em>Sarah Leonhardt includes<\/a> Ancestor Trouble<\/em> among five “summer reads by authors with ties to Fort Worth + the state of Texas.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Newton is a master at taking a complex, far-reaching topic and making it magnificently intimate.” BookPage<\/em> names Newton one of “13 Writers to Watch in 2022<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “With the rigor of a historian and the voice of a mystery writer, Newton pulls the reader into a philosophical exploration of trauma and heritage… that brings to bear America\u2019s original sins and the bonds that endure despite all manner of wrenching tests.\u201d The Observer’s <\/em>Lauren LeBlanc chooses Ancestor Trouble<\/em> as one of the best memoirs to ring in the spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGenealogist Praise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Short Story in Narrative Magazine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Texas Monthly mention<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Taking T for Jesus<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Christian Nationalist News and Private Jets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Atlantic’s Books to Feel Closer to Others<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Connecticut Public Radio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Washington Post and Obama\u2019s Book Picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Criticism in the New York Times Book Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Literary Swag Book Club<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Criticism at Book World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
NBCC John Leonard Prize Finalist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Best Book of 2022<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ada Ferrer’s reading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New York Times Magazine Letter of Recommendation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New York Times Book Review <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
NPR’s All Things Considered<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Guardian US Opinion Piece<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Boston Globe Review <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Esquire’s Best Books<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Washington Post Book World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Chicago Tribune’s Best Books <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Time Magazine Excerpt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wall Street Journal Excerpt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New Republic Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Interview with Ali Muldrow <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Dallas Morning News Q&A<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
WYPR’s The Weekly Reader<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Los Angeles Times Books Reception<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Vanity Fair’s 7 Books We Couldn’t Put Down<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New York Times Critics’ and Editors’ Recommendations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Minneapolis Star-Tribune Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Economist Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Identity Theory Feature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Los Angeles Review of Books Praise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Daily Beast Interview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Starred Kirkus Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
BookPage Profile and Starred Review<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Shondaland Interview<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wired Endorsement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bust’s Recommended Feminist Titles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bitter Southerner’s Summer Reads<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conversation with Bloom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Dame Magazine Interview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Literary Hub Conversation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
WNYC’s All of It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Vulture’s Best New Releases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
New Yorker Consideration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
FIU Profile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hippocampus Interview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Baffler Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Books with Ties to Fort Worth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
BookPage Writers to Watch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Observer’s Memoirs to Ring in the Spring<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
CNN’s March Books Recommendations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n