CULTURE | NAB Communities Podcast: Lindy Hough on Modern Grandparenting

According to a study by MetLife, about one in ten households headed by a grandparent has at least one grandchild living with them in the US. With record numbers of Baby Boomers settling into their roles as grandparents during a time of economic unrest, parents have much to gain from the help of grandparents in raising their children.

North Atlantic Books co-founder and author Lindy Hough captures an honest yet tender panorama of grandparenting in the modern age with her latest anthology, Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. The 29 vivid essays written by grandparents and grandchildren from all walks of life will appeal to both grandparents, as a celebration of their place in the family, and new parents curious about how grandparents can contribute to their children.

We sat down with Hough to discuss the issues that modern parents and grandparents face when they find they need to lean on one another more than ever before.

Lindy Hough was born in 1944 in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Smith College and earned an MFA from Goddard College. A journalist and dance critic, she has taught writing and literature in colleges and universities in Michigan, Maine, Vermont, and California. She co-founded North Atlantic Books with Richard Grossinger in 1974, and was publisher and editorial director for many years. She coedited Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival and is the author of five books of poetry, including the recent Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971–2010. For more information, visit her website at www.lindyhough.com.