Kami Westhoff’s story collection, The Criteria, appeared this May from Unsolicited Press, and her poetry chapbook, Cloudbound, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press.
The Criteria explores unconventional, and at times highly problematic, motherhood. The characters struggle with impossible choices that often lead to heartbreaking behaviors. In the title story, the main character takes on the burden of breastfeeding infants whose mothers have fallen ill while at the same time struggling with the fate of her own infant. Another story imagines a scenario in which the mother/child bond is prohibited and drastic measures are taken to ensure its prevention. The characters are asked to suffer many tragedies, but also to embrace hope in the most unlikely places.
Kami is an award-winning poet and short story writer. She is also the author of two other poetry chapbooks— Sleepwalker, which won Minerva Rising’s Dare to Be contest, and Your Body a Bullet, co-written with Elizabeth Vignali—and her prose has appeared in various journals including Booth, Carve, Hippocampus, Passages North, Meridian, Waxwing, and West Branch.
