Desire Lines

“Thrilled to have this explosive and daring collection in my hands. More, please.”— Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist, author of The Devil’s Highway

Desire Lines is a fearless, lyric memoir-in-essays in which Kristen Millares Young excavates her matrilineage and the submerged histories of the divine feminine, blending personal narrative, mythology, and cultural critique to reclaim women’s voices, maternal power, and selfhood across generations. 

In her debut memoir, award-winning novelist and journalist Kristen Millares Young seeks 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.

Desire Lines takes its title from footpaths—of necessity, defiance and longing—that emerge next to the routes that were planned for us. Challenging herself to be a mother unlike what she has known, Millares Young centers her own body as a site of resistance and making.

Tracing her matrilineage from Cuba to Spain, Millares Young uncovers 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.

ADVANCED PRAISE

“Kristen Millares Young will take readers along on her journey of discovery as she publishes her debut memoir this year.” 
—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.” 

Desire Lines was named a “Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2026” by Ms. Magazine

“Kristen Millares Young’s debut memoir explores womanhood, motherhood, liberation and embodiment with an eye toward uncovering truths that awaken and enlighten.” 
—Ms. Magazine

“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 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

“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