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Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.
In this episode of Writer’s Voice, we hear from two authors illuminating the human cost of broken systems — one through fiction, the other through investigative memoir.
In the first half of the show, we speak with Evanthia Bromiley about her haunting and lyrical debut novel Crown. It follows three days in the life of a single mother and her nine-year-old twins as they face eviction in the scorching landscape of the American Southwest — a meditation on poverty, love, and resilience in a society that too often looks away.
“Everything here finds a way to grow through what is broken.” — Evanthia Bromiley
Then, in the second half, we turn from fiction to fact with Judy Karofsky , whose book DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice exposes how an unregulated eldercare industry is failing our most vulnerable — the elderly and their families. She shares her own story of trying to find adequate care for her own mother as the latter entered her final years.
“Civilizations are judged by how we take care of the elderly. And right now, we are not doing a good job.” — Judy Karovsky
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Key Words: Evanthia Bromiley Crown, Judy Karovsky Diselderly Conduct, Writer’s Voice podcast, Francesca Rheannon interviews, fiction about poverty, homelessness in literature, assisted living crisis, hospice industry corruption, eldercare reform, private equity in healthcare
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Segment One: Evanthia Bromiley
Evanthia Bromiley’s novel Crown traces three days leading up to a young mother’s eviction in the desert Southwest. As Jude and her nine-year-old twins face homelessness, they cling to each other — and to the imagination that allows them to find beauty amid despair. Bromiley talks about poverty, motherhood, and how “the poetry of poverty” shapes the texture of her prose.
Key Topics
- Eviction and economic precarity
- The intersection of poverty and motherhood
- Writing authentically without sentimentality
- The use of structure and white space in fiction
- Finding beauty and hope amid hardship
Segment Two: Judy Karovsky
Author Judy Karofsky exposes the dark underbelly of the assisted living and hospice industry, drawing on her harrowing experience caring for her mother through six facilities.
Karovsky details systemic neglect, lack of regulation, and exploitation of immigrant workers in a for-profit eldercare system dominated by private equity. Her book is both a personal memoir and a call to action for reforming how America cares for its elders.
Key Topics
- The rise and privatization of assisted living
- The exploitation of immigrant caregivers
- Ageism and neglect in eldercare
- The lack of federal regulation and oversight
- The moral and civic duty to care for the elderly