Library Guides: Convocation 2023: Stephanie Land: About Stephanie Land

Stephanie Land's Book & Her Convocation Appearance

The 2023 Convocation featuring Stephanie Land takes place at 7 p.m. on August 22 2023 at the MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

MSU’s First Year Student Convocation is the formal welcome of the incoming class, where the university focuses attention on the start of the academic, intellectual and personal journey of first-year students. Convocation demonstrates the support of the university and community to help students reach the goal of becoming the graduating class of 2027. Land’s lecture will be part of MSU’s 16th convocation.

First Year Student Convocation is a free event, but members of the public must reserve tickets. Tickets will be available beginning February 16, 2023 at the Bobcat Ticket Office and through TicketsWest at https://montana.edu/convocationtickets.

For additional information and to stream the event visit: https://www.montana.edu/convocation/.

MSU Convocation webpage

Maid by Stephanie Land; Barbara Ehrenreich (Foreword by)
Call Number: HD6072.2.U5 L36 2019
ISBN: 9780316505116
Publication Date: 2019-01-22
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance while she didn't feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. "I'd become a nameless ghost," Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients' lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path. Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not her alone. It is an inspiring testament to the strength, determination, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

About Stephanie Land

Stephanie Land, author of a bestselling memoir about overcoming food and housing insecurity as a single mother while earning a college degree, will speak at Montana State University’s First Year Student Convocation next August at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, and it is free and open to the public.

Land is a writer and public speaker known for her memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive,” detailing her exit from an abusive relationship, trials of single motherhood, a series of events that brought her to a homeless shelter and her journey scraping by as a house cleaner to provide for her young family.

Land’s memoir addresses pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line while cutting through stigmas of the working poor, said a reviewer from The New York Times. "Maid” has been at the top of many bestseller lists, including Times’ list, and is the inspiration for the recent Netflix original series of the same name.

Driven to create a better life for herself and her daughter, Land cleaned by day, took classes by night, and wrote relentlessly as she worked toward earning a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of Montana. After graduating in 2014, Land stopped using food stamps and started working as a freelance writer. “Maid” was published in 2019.

“As many of Montana State University’s students regularly show us, a relentless sense of hope, coupled with grit, can help individuals conquer challenges and forge new paths for themselves,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “Stephanie’s story, like the stories of many other working-class Montanans, is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and to how education can transform a person’s life.”

While MSU convocation is free, members of the public must reserve tickets. Tickets will be available beginning in January 2023 at the Bobcat Ticket Office and all TicketsWest outlets.

More about Stephanie Land: Interviews, Articles, and Website

You can find out more by visiting these links.