Maid

At 28, Stephanie Land’s plans to break free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending university and becoming a writer were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, she worked days, took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly.

Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle-class America and the reality of what it’s like to be in service to them. “I’d become a nameless ghost,” Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients’ lives—their sadness and love, too—she begins to find hope in her own path.

Her writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker and to those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie’s story, but it’s not her alone.