“I think especially in academia, we are coached to go the route of paying to submit our writing to small publications, like the presses and the quarterly reviews and all of these that are considered 'prestigious.' As a writer in a college program, that's the route that you're taught to go.”

American author and public speaker

Stephanie Land is an American author and public speaker. She is known for writing memoirs about poverty, motherhood, and the work of surviving on the margins, including Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive in 2019. That book was later adapted into the Netflix miniseries Maid in 2021. Her second memoir, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, appeared in 2023 and continues her focus on single parenting, poverty, and the strain of pursuing college. She has also written articles on maid service work, domestic abuse, and poverty in the United States.