Madwoman

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and addiction. 

Chelsea Bieker is an American author acclaimed for novels that explore motherhood, trauma, and resilience. Bieker was raised in California and Hawaii, the setting of much of her fiction. Bieker’s debut novel, Godshot (2020), was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a Barnes & Noble Pick of the Month. In Godshot, a drought has devastated a fictional California town, leading its residents to seek answers from a charismatic cult leader. Godshot was acclaimed for its depictions of coercive control and desperation, aspects that it shares with Madwoman. 

In Madwoman, Bieker draws inspiration from her own life. Like Clove, she moved from California to Hawaii when she was young with her father, who was abusive, and her mother, who had an alcohol addiction. Like Clove, she had to grow up at a young age due to life circumstances. While in the novel, Clove pushes her father off the apartment’s balcony, in real life, Bieker’s parents divorced, her grandparents became her caregivers, and she kept in contact with her parents via phone calls. Although Bieker didn’t escape and create a new identity for herself like Clove in Madwoman, she said in an interview, “I’m writing into this idea of, what would’ve happened if?” (Trueherz, Matthew.