New This Week

Columns
05.04.08 | Mama at the Movies cheers for a group of musical kids and their extraordinary moms; Zen and the Art of Child Maintenance wants to sing out loud; and Red Diaper Dharma is ready to eat!

Essays
05.04.08 | In A Vinyl Batgirl Notebook, Jessica Smartt Gullion offers a glimpse into the daily struggle of keeping the peace in her home, and the heroic balancing act of being a writer and a mother: "The kids are fighting again: 'She keeps goin' in my room!' 'He hitted me!' 'She push-ted me first!' 'Mama!' 'Mama!' I wipe a Clorox-coated rag across the blue paint-splattered pattern of my kitchen counters and wonder for the thousandth time what kind of person would choose this design."

Feeling inspired? Check out the related writing prompt. We'll publish our favorites on the blog!


Poetry
05.04.08 | A bouquet of poems for Mother's Day month: Anna Evans writes, To My Daughter, After a Fight: "I hold / my character up to the light". Kris Underwood's Swimming (Stretchmarks) notes "In the right light / They glisten". In Dead Man's Float Lori Lamothe writes, "I tell her to do it right / She’s got to push a knife into fear". Carolee Sherwood describes How to disappoint your mother: "To disappoint your mother, run with scissors / and amount to absolutely nothing." In The Last Page Mary Langer Thompson writes "'I might get lucky tonight,' / you said. 'So don't page me.'" Janice D. Soderling's Christina, offers "and an open smile / like the world contained only goodness." Finally, Marci Ameluxen's Iron describes how "then her blue-veined hand / with my small freckled one / join at the handle"



Blog
Literary Mama editors chime in on upcoming events, literary news, and other happenings around the maternal blogosphere.

Previous Updates

Reviews
04.27.08 | In her review of Eleanor Stanford's new poetry collection, Ginny Kaczmarek writes, "When I first saw the title of Eleanor Stanford's book, I laughed. What better title for a book of poems about motherhood than The Book of Sleep? For a new mother, sleep, and the lack thereof, become obsessions. For a poet, obsessions become poems."

Now Reading
04.27.08 | This month at Literary Mama we asked our editors and columnists to share recommendations from titles they are currently reading.Take a look at our picks; you may want to add some of these titles to your reading list, too. Spread the joy! Download the list here and bring it to your favorite mama-friendly bookstore!


Creative Nonfiction
4.13.08 | Erosion, by Jes S. Curtis paints a picture of post-partum changes. She catalogs the physical signs: "a pile of hair. A loose bit of skin. A wrinkle, a sag. An exposed and gaping space," as she meditates on the losses that come with growth. In Leaving Neverland, Ser Jackson observes her sons as they transition from a "quirky, urban academic community" to a more mainstream world of suburbia, wondering what stories, impressions, and traits she and her son will retain as time passes and pink and purple bicycles and free expression give way to Spiderman snacks and PBS kids.


Essential Reading
4.13.08 | In honor of National Poetry Month, we dedicate our April Essentials to our favorite poetry collections. Read our picks then spread the joy! Download our list here and bring it to your favorite mama-friendly bookstore!

Fiction
4.13.08 | In What She Needs Wendy Pinkston Cebula writes, "Ilona Melton inhaled the last tunnel of smoke deep into her lungs and peeled her swimsuit straps off her shoulders. She propped her feet on the plastic lawn chair opposite her own. Her iced tea was already sweaty with condensation, proof that the summer of 1974 promised to be unusually hot."

And in Garage Sale Sudha Balagopal writes, "Ordinarily, Ruma would not have dreamed of calling her mother a pack rat. But seven days ago Ruma's three-year-old son, Jay, had fallen in her mother's cluttered living room, cutting his head on the triangular edge of a crystal piece. The injury was severe enough to warrant stitches. Ruma upbraided her mother. 'You are such a pack rat, Mother. This is 38 years of stuff! When are you going to get rid of some of it?'"


Profiles
02.23.08 | An interview with Kim McLarin, author of Jump At The Sun, by Deesha Philyaw. McLarin discusses the themes in her novel, Jump At The Sun, as well as why she writes, how being a black, female writer informs how she sees the world, and how a writer can get lost in the blogosphere.

Classes & Workshops
02.17.08 | Current offerings include Advanced Private Study, Beginning Mama Poets, and Developing the Novel.