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Stephanie Land’s bestselling debut memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive recounts her harrowing saga as a single mom navigating the poverty trap. It depicts her life at age 28 when she and her seven month-old have to move into a homeless shelter fleeing a violent home, begins the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for food stamps and subsidized housing, and starts cleaning houses for $9/hour.  Her unflinching testimony exposes the physical, economic, and social brutality that domestic workers face, all while radiating a parent’s hope and dedication.

Praised for its raw portrayal of poverty and systemic inequality, Maid inspired the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Netflix series of the same name, reaching over 67 million households, in which Land served as an executive producer on the show. Her follow-up memoir, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, continues her story as a single mother navigating college and poverty.

Land writes on economic justice, domestic abuse, and motherhood, with work featured in major outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Atlantic. She is a fellow at the Center for Community Change and an ambassador for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She is currently working on her third book, The Privilege to Feel.

Author and Professor

Gregg Colburn is an assistant professor of real estate in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. In his research, Gregg studies housing policy, housing markets, housing affordability, and homelessness. Gregg is the author of the forthcoming book, Homelessness is a Housing Problem (University of California Press, 2022). Gregg is also actively engaged with policymakers, nonprofit organizations, and housing developers on matters related to housing and homelessness in the Puget Sound region.

Gregg entered academia after spending the first seventeen years of his professional life in the private sector. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Gregg’s additional academic training includes an M.S.W. from the University of Minnesota, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a B.A. in Economics and Management from Albion College. Gregg enjoys teaching courses in economics and finance at both the graduate and undergraduate level.