Diane Tober pulls back the clinical curtain on the multibillion-dollar global egg industry in her new book coming out in October. A medical anthropologist recently tenured at the University of Alabama, Tober has conducted the first study of egg donors and reveals the introduction of private equity into fertility medicine. The recent Alabama Supreme Court decision, which upended IVF procedures at the teaching hospital in Birmingham where Diane teaches, punted fertility medicine like a political football. And the rights of women who can afford the out-of-pocket medical expenses starting at $40K to harvest their own eggs and insert fertilized eggs into her own uterus, found quick defense in popular opinion. But what of egg donors who undergo the same medical procedure of hormonal stimulation and egg retrieval for intended parents whose fertility issues prevent them from conceiving a child without medical intervention? They too might get a pass from the public. But what of the women who sell their eggs? They might be called donors, but they receive financial compensation. What happens when women are reduced to the value of biomedical products? Tracing the journey of egg donors from recruitment, screening, medical procedures, and post-operative care, Tober lets these women speak about their role in supplying valuable commodities. Her fieldwork in the US and Spain explores the clinical spaces where egg donors’ bodies are tested, prodded, and poked for ever-increasing sums of profit. Technological innovations allowed the egg donation industry to grow with exponential profits attracting private equity investments in…
As the year begins to come to a close, the Thanksgiving holiday reminds me of how much light there is in my life. I live in a community that reads, celebrates books, and supports literary artists and libraries. Books are something I feel passionately about and I’m grateful to have made them my calling, my livelihood, in this chapter of my life. For her skills… [Read More]
Filed Under: Ann Marie Ackermann, Carolyn Porter, Cathryn Prince, Diane Tober, Elizabeth Rynecki, Ira Rabois, Laurel Guy, Linda J. Spielman, Mauro Marinelli
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When your writing is published, expect to go public. Positive engagement with your audience is critical to the success of your book. Readers want to connect with authors. And writers like to hear feedback from their readers. During the last decade publishers have come to expect authors to create and manage their online personas on various social media platforms to promote and market their books…. [Read More]
Whether you’re new to Ithaca, have memories in Ithaca, or are a lifelong resident, you’ll learn why Ithacans love where they live in this beautiful new guidebook to all things local. 365 Things to Do in Ithaca by Laurel Guy will be released in December by Schiffer Publishing. Gorges. Enlightened. Quirky. Ithacans do things differently. On Cayuga Lake in the heart of New York’s Finger… [Read More]
Debra Silva Rivera is our guest blogger today. In 2015 she was selected by the Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation/Voices Writing Workshop in Miami to work with novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright Chris Abani. Rivera lives in Ithaca and is working on a middle-grade novel. Cornell University’s Creative Writing Program invited Chris Abani to speak on campus November 3 as part of the… [Read More]
A common problem for writers of narrative is overwriting. They work on a piece, edit, add more, read it again, out loud, and add a few more things. Overkill. The writing becomes so writerly it draws attention to itself and gets in the way of the story. The raw authenticity evaporates in the translation to prose. There is enormous pressure on the unpublished writer to… [Read More]
Filed Under: boring, flashbacks, foreshadowing, overwritten, pacing, purple prose, redundant, spoilers, verbose