Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: How to Leave
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.erinclune.com/
CITY: Madison
STATE: WI
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:New York University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and humorist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Erin Clune is a writer with a Ph.D. in history who has turned her talents to humor. Her book Sh*tty Mom for All Seasons, cowritten with Alicia Ybarbo and Mary Ann Zoellner, co-producers on NBC’s Today show, takes a humorous look at the pressures surrounding motherhood in the twenty-first century. “It can be hard to parent in the age of the `mommy memoire’ and the twenty four hour news cycle; there is a lot of conflicting advice out there,” Clune observed in an interview with Jim Fleming in To the Best of Our Knowledge. “For a few years we kept hearing about over parenting and `helicopter’ moms; one book called us “a nation of wimps”, mothers who daunted on their kids and over scheduled them after school were ruining their lives…. Moms, you’re too anxious; have a Martini, lighten up.” “As the kids grow and the seasons change—whether it’s soccer season, camping season, apple picking season, or cold and flu season—you still need guidance on important issues,” Clune stated in the introduction to Sh*tty Mom for All Seasons. “Most of all, you need helpful shortcuts and self-serving rationales. There is a time and a place for sentimental parenting. But school drop-off is not that time and place, and neither is this book.”
Clune’s own children provided the impetus for the move behind her second book, How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with My New Reality. Clune, reported a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “left New York City for her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, once she was married and had two young kids and, not coincidentally, was faced with the horrifying prospect of paying private school tuition.” Leaving her beloved adopted hometown was the last thing Clune wanted to do, and moving to the Midwest was next to it on her list. “I grounded this book in my own experience of leaving New York and moving back to my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, a town so pleasant and livable I couldn’t wait to get the hell out. As a teenager I once stomped out to the back porch, where my mom and her friends were drinking iced tea, and boasted that I would rather die than grow old in Wisconsin drinking iced tea on a porch. Great, my mom thought, rolling her eyes, how soon can you start packing?” “Clune’s helpful narrative is peppered with entertaining anecdotes and humorous asides,” stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer. How to Leave, the reviewer concluded, “is a hilarious and comforting book for the recently relocated.” How to Leave, said Bridget Thoreson, writing in Booklist, “a real-world guide for anyone considering trading the big city of their dreams for somewhere more manageable.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Clune, Erin, Alicia Ybarbo and Mary Ann Zoellner, Sh*tty Mom for All Seasons, Abrams Image (New York, NY), 2016.
Cline, Erin, How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with My New Reality, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2018.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2018, Bridget Thoreson, review of How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality, p. 10.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2018, review of How to Leave.
Publishers Weekly, May 21, 2018, review of How to Leave, p. 60.
ONLINE
Erin Clune website, http://www.erinclune.com (October 17, 2018), author profile.
To the Best of Our Knowledge, http://archive.ttbook.org/ (October 17, 2018), Jim Fleming, “Transcript for Erin Clune on Tiger Mothers.”
Erin Clune is a freelance writer and humorist.
She has a doctorate in American history from NYU, which looks fancy on the wall of her home office.
Locally, she writes about cocktails and that's exactly as awesome as it sounds.
Other stuff on this here author site includes published funnies, narrative essays, random click bait lists, and grouchy feminist tirades.
If you have a question or comment that isn't mean or vulgar, feel free to reach out on twitter @erinclune.
9/30/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1538353122210 1/3
Print Marked Items
Clune, Erin: HOW TO LEAVE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Clune, Erin HOW TO LEAVE Bloomsbury (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 10, 9 ISBN: 978-1-63286-854-1
A wry debut by a humorist and journalist that combines memoir with tongue-in-check self-help.
The book is set up as a guide for those who want to leave the coastal cities where they have established their
careers for smaller and cheaper towns in mid-America. Clune (co-author: Sh*tty Mom for All Seasons:
Half-@ssing It All Year Long, 2016, etc.) left New York City for her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin,
once she was married and had two young kids and, not coincidentally, was faced with the horrifying
prospect of paying private school tuition for them. While the author's insights into New York ("a peoplewatching
paradise, with absorbing human dramas everywhere you look") and the Midwest (which has "a
preponderance of three things: snow, alcohol, and white people") are more predictable than surprising, her
self-deprecating persona has its charms. Her pleasure with the newfound benefits of suburban living ("in
Wisconsin, we could do the laundry whenever it was dirty") is evident, though some may find her taste for
four-letter words less enchanting. Clune has a gift for quirky and thought-provoking overstatements
("nobody in America considers moving without, at some point, looking at Seattle") and telling details: After
she moved to Madison, she writes, "the number of weekly conversations we had about quilting went from
zero to five." The author divides the book into four sections, dedicated to "deciding to go," "settling in,"
"learning to adapt," and "mastery." Sandwiched among the snarky observations on food in the Midwest,
where "the two main cooking seasons are grilling and Crock-Pot," and rants about some of her pet peeves,
which include Target and gratitude journals, are some useful bits of advice for those contemplating or
engaged in a major move. "I do sincerely hope that before you move," she writes, "you'll say good-bye to
all of those baggy, ripped undies you've held on to for years 'just in case.' "
Even readers with no intention of uprooting their lives will likely be amused by Clune's low-key and
relatable adventures.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Clune, Erin: HOW TO LEAVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A553948761/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0acaa5d5.
Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A553948761
9/30/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1538353122210 2/3
How to Leave: Quitting the City and
Coping with a New Reality
Bridget Thoreson
Booklist.
115.1 (Sept. 1, 2018): p10.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality.
By Erin Clune.
Oct. 2018.272p. Bloomsbury, $26 (9781632868541); e-book, $17.99 (9781632868565). 307.760973.
Clune had vowed never to return to Madison, Wisconsin, once she grew up. But after almost 20 years in
New York City, thrilling to the remarkable culture while surviving giant water bugs and sketchy subway
riders, she made the difficult choice to return to her hometown. She presents her journey--from the decision
to leave through the challenges of moving and the long process of adjustment once she returned-as a realworld
guide for anyone considering trading the big city of their dreams for somewhere more manageable.
For Clune, it was the no-holds-barred competition for kindergarten placement that ultimately tipped the
scales in favor of her urban exit, but she shares other women's stories of the reasons they left various cities
and the obstacles they faced in adjusting to their new lives. From the passive-aggressive code of the
midwestern "I'm sorry" to the challenges of learning the local food culture, Clune walks through the four
stages of relocation shock (and the many setbacks along the way) with the humor, empathy, and helpfulness
of a good friend.--Bridget Thoreson
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Thoreson, Bridget. "How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality." Booklist, 1 Sept.
2018, p. 10. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A554041041/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7c150ab0. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A554041041
9/30/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1538353122210 3/3
How to Leave: Quitting the City and
Coping with a New Reality
Publishers Weekly.
265.21 (May 21, 2018): p60.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality
Erin Clune. Bloomsbury, $26 (272p) ISBN 9781-63286-854-1
Comedie writer Clune shares her experience of moving from Manhattan back to her hometown of Madison,
Wis., in this clever and amusing memoir-cum--"practical coping guide." Clune divides the book into four
parts: "Deciding to Go," "Settling In," "Learning to Adapt," and "Mastery," with chapters describing her
transition from New Yorker to Midwesterner. For her, the "tipping factor" in deciding to move after 20 years
of living in the city was when her first child entered kindergarten, and she and her lawyer husband decided
it would be easier to relocate to a more family-friendly environment and enroll the kids in public school.
Clune soon misses fresh shellfish, chance encounters with celebrities, and other Manhattan perks, and finds
that her irreverent, sarcastic communication mode doesn't work so well in the Midwest, where one should
not indiscriminately "drop the f-bomb." She advises her readers to resist the urge to be "judgy," to curse, or
to complain after a move, for there is "no perfect place." Clune's helpful narrative is peppered with
entertaining anecdotes and humorous asides ("It also became apparent during that first year that my friends
from New York were never going to visit") along with such sagacious observations as "moving is a process,
not an event." This is a hilarious and comforting book for the recently relocated. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality." Publishers Weekly, 21 May 2018, p. 60.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541012639/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a5716e98. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541012639
Transcript for Erin Clune on Tiger Mothers
Interview details for Erin Clune on Tiger Mothers
Listen Now Download
VIEW OTHER INTERVIEWS FROM: MOTHER ISSUES
Jim Fleming: Mother issues are all over the media nowadays where it seems someone is always poised to offer an opposing viewpoint. Commentator Erin Clune says that for regular moms like her it’s a struggle just to stay on top of the latest self- help trend.
Erin Clune: It can be hard to parent in the age of the `mommy memoire` and the twenty four hour news cycle; there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. For a few years we kept hearing about over parenting and `helicopter` moms; one book called us “a nation of wimps”, mothers who daunted on their kids and over scheduled them after school were ruining their lives. Kids don’t need a nanny camp, the expert said; they need to play alone in the backyard. And moms, you’re too anxious; have a Martini, lighten up, because nothing relaxes a nervous mom like being told to lighten up. But then it wasn’t long before `mommy cocktail hour` was over, at least on CNN.
CNN: There isn’t that option where we let loose with the spanking anymore, so we revert more to the yelling and there is more frustration now and we let that out through the yelling and it’s not a healthy thing. I think yelling is the new spanking.
Erin: Yelling was the new spanking? Time to put the nanny camps back on and point them to ourselves! It turned out we weren’t just raising our kids to be wimps, we were also screaming at them. But, wait, did anyone tell this woman?
Woman: What Amy Chua doesn’t believe in is play dates, sleepovers, she even threat to burn her daughter’s stuffed animals if she didn’t play the piano perfectly!
Erin: Have `tiger mothers` learnt nothing from cable news? Well, probably not; they don’t let their kids watch TV. But Amy Chua wrote a book on yelling; she says in her memoire she yelled at one of her daughters for writing a bad speech, she lost her voice screaming at the other one for not practicing the piano, she even yelled once because she wanted her kid to relax! Maybe `tiger mothers` have to yell to keep their overachievers on track, but where does that leave the rest of us? If we aren’t tiger mothers, are we just bad mothers? When cable news didn’t give me the answers, I did some research of my own. I took my kids to an indoor expo, a stadium full of carnival games and free product giveaways; it was exactly the kind of setting that usually makes me wanna yell and I asked some other moms what do they think about all the yelling.
Mom 1: As a mother of three grown children I used to yell at mine all the time, not that I wanted to.
Mom 2: I am not a yeller, I am not gonna yell, but I do believe in spanking though.
Erin: So, you’re spanking, no yelling?
Mom 2: Yes.
Erin: And how do you put a teenager over your lap and spank them?
Mom 2: You’ll see, that, that’s when you do grounding.
Erin: Maybe you’ll start yelling then.
Mom 2: Yeah, maybe.
Erin: And there was this mother that was working as a clown.
Mom 3: Oh, everybody gets frustrated; I’ve known the most patient of parents and they’re like: “what are you doing?”, but I don’t think is as much volume as it is at costume.
Erin: Well, all right, then thank you!
Mom3: Ok, you’re welcome.
Erin: Is good to have a clown’s perspective!
Mom 3: [laugh]
Erin: I also met a mom who brought her bulldog, who was dressed in a Packers jersey.
Mom 4: I think anger is a problem, frustration.
Erin: Do you ever yell at your dog?
Mom 4: I raise my voice.
Erin: Who do you yell at more, your dog or your kids?
Mom 4: Probably my kids because I have four of them.
Erin: On my way out of the expo I interviewed one of the volunteers; surely she had the patience of a saint.
Volunteer: Do I yell? Yes! She’s right there, she can attest to that, I do!
Erin: Does your mom yell?
Volunteer: Uhm, sometimes.
Erin: That’s not too bad.
Volunteer’s mom: She’s being nice, I’m standing right here!
Erin: [laugh]
Volunteer’s mom: It’s called `fear`. [laugh]
Erin: [laugh]. It’s called `fear`. Well, the truth is that we, moms, probably do need to talk more and more seriously about yelling, but then recent studies have shown that nearly half of moms still spank their kids, so is yelling really the new spanking? Spanking the new yelling? Or tiger mothers just a new scarier kind of helicopter parent? Stay tuned, moms, I am sure the advice mails will sort this out, but while you’re waiting, try to lighten up!
Jim Fleming: Erin Clune is a writer, radio producer and, of course, a mom. She spoke to the other moms in Madison, Wisconsin.