Stephanie Land’s Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education (2023) is her follow-up to Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive (2019). Both memoirs began as shorter papers, essays, and online writing; she developed and expanded the ideas for these texts in nonfiction courses at the University of Montana.

Maid is considered to be a gripping examination of poverty in America and received wide acclaim, including praise from former-President Barack Obama and author Roxane Gay. Maid was adapted into a Netflix series that premiered in October 2021. Class did not receive the same level of acclaim but is considered a largely successful and honest portrayal of the complex intersection of poverty and the pursuit of higher education.

Class discusses Land’s journey as a single mother navigating poverty, higher education, child support, relationships, and the bureaucracy of government assistance. She encounters judgment from potential mentors and does not find that an academic environment enables the kind of equity that the university supposedly prizes. Class examines the themes of The Determination to Overcome Personal and Financial Obstacles, The Challenges of Single Parenthood, and Societal Attitudes Towards Poverty and Government Assistance.

This guide references the 2023 hardback edition of the text published by Atria/One Signal Publishers. In this guide, “Land” will be used to denote the author, while “Stephanie” will be used to denote the persona of the narrator.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain descriptions of food and housing insecurity, graphic sexual content, and child abuse.

Summary

Stephanie navigates the bureaucratic labyrinth of trying to get increased child support payments from her daughter Emilia’s father, Jamie, who resents that Stephanie is going to college instead of working full-time. Though Jamie is emotionally abusive, Emilia misses him.

Stephanie is determined to prove her friends and family wrong; everyone around her insists that a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) will not guarantee financial stability for a single mother. However, she knows that if she doesn’t at least try, she will not feel fulfilled and at peace with herself.

At age five, Stephanie’s daughter Emilia has lived in 15 homes. While Emilia is in Portland visiting Jamie, Stephanie dates a writer named Theodore. Dating as a single mom is difficult for Stephanie. Her last relationship, with Evan, ended after she got an abortion. Theodore eventually breaks up with her. Stephanie and her friend Sylvie go out looking for potential men to date; Stephanie befriends Daniel, who becomes her drinking-and-casual-sex partner.

Stephanie ponders the paradoxes of higher education. Her loans are sinking her further into poverty. She feels major impostor syndrome on campus, where many of her classmates are much younger than her and have their parents paying their tuition. She recalls being 15 and asking her dad about college; he taught her how to budget, but he could not pay for a four-year degree, so she decided not to put in effort in high school. Stephanie did not want to wait a year to start school in Missoula as a resident, so she is paying out-of-state tuition. She considers the social pressure to earn a degree and take out loans that she may never fully pay off. She contemplates how hard it is to plan for the future when you are bogged down by daily responsibilities. Stephanie aspires to earn her MFA and learn from accomplished memoirist Judy Blunt.

Stephanie feels that in order to be taken seriously as a writer, she needs to participate in more off-campus events. She is pleased that in a college town there is a large pool of 19-year-olds who are willing to babysit in exchange for beer. She is thankful to live in a house with several roommates so that she can go to the bars after Emilia falls asleep, which feels necessary to Stephanie in terms of networking. For her 35th birthday, Stephanie hosts a large party. She has sex with Theodore’s friend Max, and the next day she has sex with Daniel. Stephanie realizes that she is pregnant, and she wants to learn about her options. Daniel is furious when he finds out. She makes an appointment for an abortion. She is stressed about not knowing who the father is.

The Portland child support office decides that Jamie should pay $300 more per month in child support. Stephanie is ecstatic; Jamie wants to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, Emilia is acting out at school. Her teacher is frustrated that she is often late.

Stephanie goes to the church-run pregnancy crisis center, where she learns that she is seven weeks pregnant. She also learns that if she attends the church’s parenting classes, she can receive free diapers, food, and clothes, but she feels that it’s not worth it to attend the classes. She realizes that she wants to keep the baby and believes that she can care for two children without a second parent.

As Stephanie begins telling people she is pregnant, she is often met with judgment, and she stops being friends with those who judge her. She tries to secure more food stamps but learns that she must work 20 hours a week in order to receive more, which feels daunting to Stephanie, considering her daughter and her schoolwork. At this point, Emilia is performing poorly at school and often has detention because she is late or lashing out.

Stephanie looks forward to her MFA program. However, her excitement to work with Judy Blunt disappears when Judy tells Stephanie that she thinks babies don’t belong in grad school. Still, she excitedly prepares her application while also preparing for the child support hearing.

After returning from Christmas with Jamie, Emilia acts out because Jamie told her Stephanie does not want Emilia to see Jamie. They are very low on food, but Stephanie does not want to go to the food bank in case she is seen by a member of the MFA applications committee. The person conducting the child support hearing again tells Stephanie that she needs to work more hours per week. Stephanie is very disappointed that Jamie comes out of the hearing looking much better than she does. Stephanie and Emilia are ecstatic to learn that she is having a girl. They decide to name the baby Coraline because Emilia loves the movie Coraline.

Emilia starts seeing a children’s therapist. Stephanie hopes that this will help resolve some of Emilia’s issues and also hopes that this will help Stephanie in court. She learns that she will receive an increased food stamps budget.

Stephanie receives the judgment from the child support hearing; the ruling is mostly in Jamie’s favor. Stephanie decides she will appeal the decision, but she needs someone who can appear on her behalf. She finds a lawyer in Portland who needs a $900 retainer. At a party, Stephanie runs into Judy Blunt, who sees her pregnant belly. Stephanie believes this is why she is then rejected from the MFA program.

Stephanie is nervous about graduating from college and is disappointed that she does not know how to use her degree. As her due date approaches, she enlists the help of 10 friends to drive her to the hospital. Sylvie, who has four children, says she is unavailable. Stephanie decides they are no longer friends, hoping to rid her life of obstacles and negativity.

Stephanie goes into labor and rushes to the birth center, where Coraline arrives very quickly.