Desire Lines
Desire Lines is a forensic investigation into the emotional topography of womanhood.
In my debut memoir, I seek possibilities for women’s liberation amid the ongoing erosion of our human rights. Desire Lines excavates submerged truths about motherhood, the body and the sacred.
“Kristen Millares Young will take readers along on her journey of discovery,” writes People magazine in its exclusive cover reveal and interview: “With Desire Lines, I hope to show the beauty and freedom we make possible when we refuse to abandon our truths.”
Red Hen Press will publish Desire Lines on October 6, 2026. Please pre-order my memoir from an indie bookstore like Elliott Bay Books Co. or Third Place Books. Named a most anticipated feminist book of 2026 by Ms. Magazine, Desire Lines is also available at Bookshop, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
“Kristen Millares Young’s debut memoir explores womanhood, motherhood, liberation and embodiment with an eye toward uncovering truths that awaken and enlighten.”
—Ms. Magazine
Desire Lines takes its title from footpaths—of necessity, defiance and longing—that emerge next to the routes that were planned for us. Challenging myself to be a mother unlike what I have known, I center my own body as a site of resistance and making.
Tracing my matrilineage from Cuba to Spain, I uncovered the remnants of a pagan cult whose mother goddess, Cybele, was erased to make way for the Virgin Mary. But Cybele was no virgin.
On the edge of an impasse, written as both invitation and veil, Desire Lines reclaims the power siphoned from women’s stories, wielding the lyric essay for awakening consciousness.
Advance Praise
“In Desire Lines, Kristen Millares Young explores womanhood, human rights, and identity with a moral imperative and artistry that few writers achieve. She is an immense literary talent, and this remarkable book should be read by all.”
— Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist
author of The Devil is a Southpaw, The Removed and Where the Dead Sit Talking
“These emotionally gripping essays delve into the complexities of familial love and obligation. Kristen Millares Young seamlessly weaves together personal experience, historical research, mythology, and cultural critique in a memoir that feels both timely and timeless. Her prose is alive with style and poetic lyricism.”
— Weike Wang, winner of PEN/Hemingway and Whiting awards
author of Chemistry and Joan is Okay
“In this tremendous memoir, Kristen Millares Young grips the reader’s hand and leads us into the terrifying place where all life comes from. She is intrepid, incisive. Generous and unsparing is her consideration of mothering, the ordinary and glorious act that keeps the world renewing itself. I loved this book.”
— Elissa Washuta, PEN/Open Book Award finalist
author of White Magic and My Body is a Book of Rules
“Kristen Millares Young is a fearless woman who will go places other writers might fear to tread. I have admired her fierce honesty and craft for a long time and am thrilled to have this explosive and daring memoir in my hands. More, please.”
— Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist
author of The Devil’s Highway
“Kristen Millares Young’s memoir Desire Lines is a sage instruction manual for how to choose love over harm, joy over despair, art over ruin. Strength and affection shine from every page. In a patriarchal world that seeks to break us, this is a defiant and triumphant howl of wholeness, both electrifying and healing.”
— Sharma Shields, Washington State Book Award winner
author of The Cassandra
“Kristen Millares Young brings a searching, generous, and unrelenting gaze to every subject she writes on, most of all herself.”
— Melissa Febos, National Book Critics Circle Award winner
author of Girlhood and The Dry Season
© 2026 Kristen Millares Young.
Kristen Millares Young 