Earl Horlyk
An ambitious artist decides to take a break from her career to become a stay-at-home mom. Two years later, she discovers a patch of hair on the back of her neck as well as some surprisingly sharp canine teeth in her mouth.
Happy Mother's Day, you might be turning into a feral dog!
This is the premise of "Nightbitch," the critically acclaimed debut novel by Rachel Yoder, the assistant professor of screenwriting and cinema arts at the University of Iowa, In Iowa City.
Yoder's darkly satirical 2021 novel -- a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel -- has also been adapted into a movie starring Amy Adams.
The Sioux City International Film Festival will host a screening of "Nightbitch" and a Q&A with Yoder at 7 p.m. March 29 at ACX Promenade Cinema, 924 Fourth St.
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If you thought the premise behind "Nightbitch" was weird, well, so did Yoder.
"Actually, the idea of a mom becoming feral was an inside joke between me and my husband when our own child was 3 years old," she explained. "Being sleep-deprived for three years straight can do that to a person."
But the concept stuck with Yoder.
"On the one hand, I definitely knew a story about a mom turning into a dog was absurd and a very bad idea," she reasoned. "Still, I started writing it because I do like the challenge of turning a bad idea into something good."
Growing up in a Mennonite community in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio, Yoder's entire life had revolved around writing.
That all ended when she became a mom.
"For so long, writing became my way of making sense of the world," Yoder said. "Without writing, I didn't have that sense-making tool in my life."
Eventually, she made an effort to write to write on a daily basis.
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"I'd head on over to a coffee shop, sit down and just write for two or three hours," Yoder explained. "My goal was to just write whatever came out of me."
This exercise soon took on the form of a novel.
"There truly wasn't a grand plan to turn this bad idea into a book," Yoder allowed. "After all, a mother becoming a feral animal didn't scream 'best seller' to me."
Still, having gone through pregnancy and childbirth herself, Yoder knew her body had changed. The experience of growing a human inside seemed both primal and alien.
"There was a deep biological pull between staying home and take care of your baby," she said. "After that, there is an inherent tension because you want to maintain your own identity."
Yoder's metaphorical take on motherhood resonated with readers as soon as "Nightbitch" was published. Incredibly, offers to turn it into a movie came before the book was even published.
"I definitely think the book benefited from being released in 2021," she said. "We were just coming off of COVID and the pandemic forced everyone to rethink career, motherhood and the choices we all had to make."
Indeed, "Nightbitch" continues to spur conversation.
"The book came out four years ago and I'm still talking about," Yoder noted. "That says a lot."
It certainly helps when the big screen adaptation also proved to be buzz-worthy.
Written and directed by Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me?") and featuring a Golden Globe-nominated performance by Amy Adams, the movie version of "Nightbitch" gets a thumbs-up from Yoder.
"I loved the movie and I loved that Marielle took the story and made it hers," Yoder said. "Marielle put a lot of herself in the movie as did Amy."
Reflecting for a moment on her "bad idea" for a book finding an audience, she is happy that "Nightbitch" has continue to satisfy an appetite.
"I've had so many women coming up to me, saying the book captured the tension they went through after childbirth," Yoder explained. "I've even had guys who said it opened their eyes into what their wives experienced."
If you go
WHAT: Sioux City International Film Festival Q&A with author Rachel Yoder and screening of movie "Nightbitch," starring Amy Adams, as part of Sioux City's 2025 Celebration of Women in the Arts.
WHEN: 7 p.m. March 29
WHERE: ACX Promenade Cinema. 924 Fourth St.
FOR MORE INFO: siouxcityfilmfest.org
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