Welcome to our Indie Spotlight series, in which TNBBC gives small press authors the floor to shed some light on their writing process, publishing experiences, or whatever else they'd like to share with you, the readers!
Today's spotlight shines on Kaitlyn Bankson who just released her novel Nest on July 6th.
Why I Wrote Nest: The Quiet Psychology of Motherhood
When most people imagine pregnancy, they picture joy: baby showers, tiny clothes, decorating a nursery, a growing family.
What interested me was everything happening beneath those moments.
I wanted to write about the invisible work of becoming a
mother—the endless calculations, the quiet fears, and the desire to make the
world safe for someone who has not even arrived yet.
That desire has a name. We call it nesting.
On the surface, nesting looks simple enough: painting walls,
folding tiny clothes, organizing drawers. But I began wondering whether those
rituals are really about furniture and blankets at all. What if they're an
attempt to create order when life suddenly feels unpredictable? What if
preparing a nursery is, in some small way, preparing yourself?
Those questions became the heart of Nest.
My protagonist, Winnie Amato, desperately wants to become a
mother. Alongside that hope comes what she simply calls "the Fear"—an
anxiety that follows her through every decision, every doctor's appointment,
every ordinary day. Her husband, Thomas, wants the same future, but each of
them experiences uncertainty differently.
I wasn't interested in writing a thriller where danger comes from
outside the home. I was interested in the quieter tension that many people
recognize: the way our own minds can magnify uncertainty until it becomes
difficult to distinguish genuine caution from imagined catastrophe.
Literary fiction gives us room to linger in those interior
landscapes. It allows ordinary moments to carry extraordinary emotional weight.
A nursery can become a symbol of hope. A routine conversation can reveal the
distance between two people who love each other deeply. A single choice can
echo for months.
Anxiety is rarely defeated by one inspirational speech or one
dramatic breakthrough. More often, it is navigated through thousands of
ordinary moments—moments of noticing, choosing, trusting, and continuing
forward despite uncertainty.
Perhaps that is what nesting really is.
Not simply preparing a room but preparing yourself to love someone
enough that every ordinary object suddenly feels important.
If Nest encourages readers to look more closely at the
emotional landscape of pregnancy, motherhood, and the quiet courage required to
embrace an uncertain future, then it has accomplished exactly what I hoped it
would.
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“I, Winnie Amato, have had sex today with my husband, Thomas Amato.”
Winnie and Thomas Amato have decided to have their first baby together. Although the excitement levels are high, Winnie, especially, is also full of dread. Already prone to being an anxious person, the fluctuating hormones and nauseous waves aggravate her fears. In fact, she calls it “the Fear” because sometimes it becomes so loud that there is nothing else.
After Winnie becomes fed up with her suffering and feelings of madness, she finds that her new desire to nest runs deep into the very marrow of her bones. She cleans and preps and spends countless hours preparing a nursery for their baby. And somewhere within the frantic nesting, Winnie finds moments to breathe and discover peace.
But can these minor moments of noticing and slowing down really stop “the Fear” from reappearing? Can Winnie make it through her pregnancy without losing the baby? Will Thomas and Winnie remain together as man and wife? Nine months turn into eons for a woman who is holding a growing baby inside her body for that long. Every day brings unfamiliar sensations and new ways of exploring the world, as if both soon-to-be parents were only babies themselves.
Kaitlyn Bankson is an American literary novelist who writes psychological literary fiction for the individualist. Influenced by Objectivism and the tradition of Romantic Realism, her novels explore the individual mind under pressure. She is the author of five novels—The Paper Pusher, The Dormant Age, A Man of Silence, A Man of Action, and Nest. She lives in Dubuque, Iowa, with her husband and daughter.
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