Contributors, R-T

Sophia Raday wrote the column "Mommy Athens, Daddy Sparta." A founding editor of Literary Mama, she lives in Berkeley, California, with her soldier/police officer husband, their five-year-old boy, a bipartisan dog,and assorted firearms. Her most recent work appeared in the New York Times. You can contact her through her website, sophiaraday.com.

Heather Rader ("I'm Bored") believes that writing sharpens her mind, brightens her mood and even burns fat. When labels are necessary, she's a mother-writer-teacher (in that order). Her children are 10, 7, and 3 (the only time in their lives when her son will be the sum of her daughters' ages). Her work has been published in Mothering magazine, Living Without, The Sun, Midwifery Today, Teaching K-8, Teacher-Librarian, Library Sparks, and Mamazine. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

Heidi Raykeil ("Johnny"; "The Milky Way," A Review of Fresh Milk; "Too Cool for Preschool," a review of Breeder) is Columns Editor at Literary Mama. This is an excerpt from a memoir she is writing about her son's brief but miraculous life, and the meaning she has gained from it. Heidi and her husband have since gone on to have a beautiful baby girl. You can contact her at hraykeil@comcast.net .

Mary Rechner ("Four") has published her work in The English Journal, Vermont Times, Upstart, Wollemi, girlzone.com, Parting Gifts, Manila, Asylum Annual and New Frontiers and has work forthcoming in the Kenyon Review. She teaches creative writing in several writers-in-the-schools programs in Portland and has been awarded residencies at Caldera and the Vermont Studio Center. Mary is seeking a publisher for her novel, Blood Test, is the recipient of a 2003 OR Literary Fellowship from Literary Arts, and is completing her MFA at Antioch University, Los Angeles. She is the mother of two boys, ages six and four.

Kristin Reed ("Why Mother Pigs Eat Their Young") is the eldest daughter, who helped raise four younger siblings. She
spent her teen years babysitting for neighbors (a mothering job not always given adequate respect) and is now the mother of two grown children, step-mother of a now-grown step-son, and grandmother of two little boys. She was foster mother for many children, mostly teenaged girls and has published seven poems, five short stories and two creative non-fiction essays.

Karen Regen-Tuero ("There He Is") lives on Long Island with her husband and two children, ages 13 and 10. Her stories have appeared in an anthology and almost a dozen literary magazines, including Glimmer Train Stories. A graduate of Duke University and the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College, she teaches at Queens College/City University of New York, and freelances for TV and film projects. She recently completed a novel.

Michelle Richmond ("The Hero of Queens Boulevard") is the author of the novel Dream of the Blue Room and the story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their nine-month-old son, Oscar. Their house is very, very bright, as Oscar has recently learned how to sign the word for "light." Michelle is the founding editor of the online literary journal Fiction Attic. Her personal website is www.michellerichmond.com.

Jamaica Ritcher("The Two-Year-Old's Personal Laundress, the Writer and the Mom") is the mother of Maia (now age 6) and Jonah (3) and lives in Canberra, Australia. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Rattlesnake Review, Sacramento News and Review, National Public Radio's Day to Day, and in the anthology, This I Believe. In 2005, she won the Australian Capital Territory Writer's Centre Award for Poetry.

Cinthia Ritchie ("How to Give Birth") lives in Alaska with her 13-year-old son (whom she frequently embarrasses), her hyper dog and two stubborn cats. She is a newspaper reporter by day and writes fiction and poetry by night. Her publications include Slow Trains Literary Journal, Conspire, Sho, Horsethief's Journal, Poems Niederngasse, Stirrings, Retrozine, Ice Floe: International Poetry of the North, Dare Magazine, Clean Sheets, Scarlet Letters, Wicked Alice, Mind Caviar, Moondance, Inside Passages and Girlphoria, with upcoming work in the Water-Stone Review, Gin Bender Poetry Review, International Journal of Erotica, Sunspinner, the Cascadia Review and Working Hard: An Italian Anthology. She was the recent winner of the 2004 Brenda Ueland Prose Prize.

Jennifer Robinson, ("Conversation & Park", "Slipping") lives with her husband and one-year-old daughter in Southern California. Her work has appeared in Writers Monthly, The Readerville Journal, Full Circle: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, Long Story Short, The Plum Ruby Review, "Looking Back: Stories of Our Mothers and Fathers in Retrospect" (New Brighton Books, 2003), and "2 Do Before I Die" (Little, Brown & Co., 2005). Her young adult novel, Easily Influenced, is currently being reviewed for publication.

Kate Robinson ("Past the Bone") is the mother of four kids ranging in age from 11 to 29, and a new grandma. She lives with her youngest son and daughter, a parakeet, a sugar glider, and the neighbor's roaming peacock in Chino Valley, Arizona. Her short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Muse Apprentice Guild, Sandcutters, Drexel Online Journal, Absolute Write, and other websites, small journals, and anthologies. Her middle grade virtual tour of the National Mall was released by Enslow Publishers in February 2005. Her work-in-progress includes children's fiction, retold folktales, and a novel. You can email her at kater@northlink.com.

Terez Rose ("Stay With Me") has published stories and essays in the San Jose Mercury-News, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Writers Journal. Anthology credits include Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food (Seal Press, November 2003) and A Woman's Europe (Travelers' Tales, June 2004). She makes her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband and five-year-old son. She has recently completed her first novel.

Jordan E. Rosenfeld ("Urges") is the host of Word by Word, a literary program on NPR-affiliate KRCB radio. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The St. Petersburg Times, Salome Magazine, The Summerset Review, Pindeldyboz, Word Riot, Haypenny, InkPot, Skyline Magazine, and JANE, and more is forthcoming at Storyhouse, NFG, Edifice Wrecked, and The St. Petersburg Times. She is the editor of Zebulon Nights: An Anthology of LiveWire Readers (Word Riot Press, 2003). At the moment she is only mother to a very large cat named Figaro, but is doing what all her friends tell her not to do: spending a lot of time thinking about having a child, under the pretense of being able to be "prepared" when it's time. Visit her blog at www.jordansmuse.blogspot.com.

Lois Rubin ("We have deeper selves to write from") is Associate Professor of English at Penn State, New Kensington Campus where she teaches composition and multi-cultural and women's literature. She publishes articles about composition research and pedagogy and contemporary Jewish women writers.

Rita Rubin ("Gray Like Me") is a medical reporter for USA TODAY and the author of What If I Have a C-Section? (Rodale Books, 2004). Previously, she covered medicine for U.S. News & World Report and The Dallas Morning News. Her work has appeared in a variety of other newspapers and magazines, including Health, Ladies Home Journal and Weight Watchers Magazine. She holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and attended the Harvard School of Public Health on a journalism fellowship. Rita lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and two daughters.

Lisa Rubisch ("How to Make a Meat Pie and Other Tales of the Ambitious Mother") is a TV commercial director and partner of Bob Industries, helming spots for Ikea, Polaroid, Puma, Nike, as well as many others. She lives in New York City with her husband, Ian Kerner, their two-year old son, Owen, and an obese Jack Russell Terrier named Houdini. Lisa's writing was recently published in her husband's book, Be Honest, You're Not That into Him Either. This is her second publication.

Laura Ruby ("Put the Blender on Frappe") is the author of I’m Not Julia Roberts, a collection of interconnected short stories about blended families.

Jennifer Ruden ("This Is Where You Write" and "Bubbles"), after a five year sabbatical which entailed teaching 12 people how to read, initiating and directing a GED program, getting married, losing 50 pounds and gaining back 40, and most importantly, having a most beautiful daughter, has decided to make her way back home to writing, which she should never have left in the first place. Contact Jennifer at JENNYR1975 (at) aol (dot) com

Helen Ruggieri ("A Post Partum Disease Center"), following her children's departure for college, went to Penn State and got an MFA in writing. Other memoirs have appeared in , Quarter After Eight (OSU), The Heartlands, Portraits, and in the anthologies (Tarcher/Penguin), Personal Narratives in the Helping Professions (Haworth Press), and Writing Work: Writers on Working-Class Writing (Bottom Dog Press).

Ann Rushton's writing ("Skin the Color of Canned Peaches") has appeared or is forthcoming in Storyglossia, Julien's Journal, and REAL, The Journal of Liberal Arts. She is the co-editor of Bound Off, a short fiction podcast. While earning her B.A. in English from the University of Iowa, she was a member of the Undergraduate Writers' Workshop. She has worked in the financial and telecommunications industries, and lives in Cedar Rapids, IA with her husband and two daughters. She can be reached at annrushton@gmail.com.

Rachel Sarah, ("Not In Her Footsteps," A review of Mothering Without A Map and "A Look at Life Before Hip Mama-hood," A review of Atlas of the Human Heart) lives and writes in the Bay Area. Her first book, Single Mom Seeking: Play Dates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World (Avalon/Seal Press) was published in 2007. She is also the author of the Literary Mama column, Single Mom Seeking. Rachel has written for Family Circle, Parenting, Tango, Bay Area Parent, Ms., Hip Mama, and American Baby. A journalist for the past decade, Rachel is also the single mom columnist for LifetimeTV.com. To reach Rachel, click here.

Sara Schley ("A Working Mother's Day") runs an international consulting firm that helps businesses become more sustainable. Her writing has been published in Mothering.com, the Sentient Times, Midwifery Today, and elsewhere. She is currently co-authoring a book about business and sustainability with MIT professor and bestselling author, Peter Senge, to be published by Doubleday in 2007. The mother of twins, she lives with her family in western Massachusetts.

Stephanie Schlitz ("Losing Thomas") is the mother of sons. She’s also an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and English at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Melissa Scholes Young ("Postpartum Exile") grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which she loyally claims as her hometown. When she is not finger painting with Isabelle, her three-year-old daughter, Melissa teaches English and Creative Writing at Lincoln High School. She has been a teacher for the past eight years and has taught at all levels from middle school to high schools, from community college to college and finally, at an international school in Brazil. Her articles have been published in Family Forum, A Cup of Comfort for Teachers, and the nationally syndicated Front Porch. Melissa moved to Tallahassee a few years ago after being persuaded by her Floridian husband that winter is optional. You can contact her at mscholesyoung@yahoo.com.

Holly A. Schullo (All That There Is) received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina (2001) and is completing a PhD in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2005). Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Louisiana Literature (as a semi-finalist in the 2003 Louisiana Literature Prize for Poetry), Interdisciplinary Humanities, Poems and Plays, Dirty Swamp Poets, and Yemassee. She was a finalist in the 2003 Calyx Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize. She has completed a manuscript of poems titled, A New Year of Thirteen Moons.

Dianne Scott ("Bathroom Floor") is a writer, teacher and mother of two small children living in Toronto, Canada. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction have been featured in a variety of journals, magazines, websites and radio broadcasts. Her current writing project is a humorous book on new motherhood. Go to diannescott.ca for more information about Dianne Scott and her writing.

Elizabeth Scott ("The Habits of her Face") is a practicing psychologist and fiction writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The MacGuffin, New Stone Circle, and Lake Effect among others. She is the unabashedly proud mama to two grown daughters, Ashley and Erica. Elizabeth is currently at work on her first novel.

Heidi Scrimgeour ("A Conversation with Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile" and "I Write in the Shower)is a 30-something former blonde-bombshell PR high-flier turned accidental brunette and Stuck-At-Home-Mum to two boys under the age of four. She hails from England but recently uprooted from ten years in London to a simpler and much colder life in Northern Ireland on the Antrim Coast. Since receiving her first rejection letter from Methuen books at the tender age of seven, she has been possessed with a determination to write a novel. She sets herself to this task daily while her boys nap, and hopes to achieve her goal well before they give up this most auspicious habit. Time is running out. Meanwhile, she blogs at www.onefeistymama.vox.com

Terri G. Scullen ("Boomerang"" and ("Green Means Go") has been published in The Baltimore Review. She is the recipient of a residency fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a special initiative in support of the Virginia Commission for the Arts and their individual artist grants. While her heart is at the beach, she lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and their 14-year-old son, Jimmy and 10-year-old daughter, Samantha. Readers may drop her a line at TGScullen@aol.com.

Tamara Kaye Sellman ("The Drift" and "Apparent Suicide: A Postpartum Fairy Tale") is editor and publisher of MARGIN: Exploring Modern Magical Realism. Her work has appeared in The North American Review, Raven Chronicles and Suspect Thoughts: A Journal of Subversive Writing. She has also published fiction and poetry in Quarterly West, Other Voices, Rosebud, The Crescent Review, and various theme anthologies, including MOTA: Courage (Triple Tree Publishing: 2002), edited by Karen Joy Fowler. Sellman was a finalist in the James Hearst Poetry Prize competition in 2003 and was the recipient of a Pushcart Prize nomination in 1998. She is the mother of two daughters, 11 and 8, who are both published poets. She splits her time between Bainbridge Island and Birch Bay, Washington. Please visit her personal website.

Tomi Shaw ("Me, You, and Eve") gave birth to two beautiful baby girls seven and eight years ago. Two years ago, she became the step-mother to another beautiful girl. She is a woman intent upon raising healthy women. Her work has appeared in Flashquake, Absinthe Literary Review, Snow Monkey, Wild Violet, and elsewhere. She loves rain tat-tattering on a tin roof and races a bittersweet-colored Mustang.

Liz Sheffield ("Broken Mug") lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, Brad, and their two young sons, Henry and Eli. She mothers, writes, and works as a training and development manager in corporate America. Sheffield received her BA in English Literature from Whitman College. She can be reached at lizsheffield08 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Liese Sherwood-Fabre ("Tough Love") received her PhD from Indiana University and is an award-winning author whose pieces have appeared in Briar Cliff Review, Lynx Eye, and Writers' Journal magazines. Another story appears in the anthology The Girls' Life’s Big Book of Friendship Fiction. Her professional career with the U.S. government has taken to countries throughout the world. The current piece, "Tough Love," was inspired by discussions and presentations on teen problems and solutions at conferences she has attended in her current position with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a mother of three teens herself. You can view more about her writing at: www.liesesherwoodfabre.com.

Martha Silano ("Four a.m.") lives, mothers, writes and teaches in Seattle. She is the author of What the Truth Tastes Like (Nightshade 1999). Her work has also appeared widely, in such places as The Paris Review, Beloit Poetry Journal and in the anthology, American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnagie Mellon 2000). You can access her website at http://www.marthasilano.com

Minati Singh ("Lesson from a Poet") was born and raised in India. She came to the U.S. in 1985 and earned a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. After a couple of stints as an Assistant Professor of English, she left academia in 1998. Her daughter, Esther India, was born in 2001 and since then, she has been struggling to find time to write and sometimes resisting, sometimes embracing being transformed by motherhood. She lives with her husband and daughter in Seattle. This is her first published poem. She is currently working on a novel and a collection of poems.

Nancy Slavin ("My Mother Looks Like Sylvia Plath") is a writer and writing instructor on the north Oregon coast where she lives with her husband and with whom she is eagerly expecting their first baby, due about five weeks after her story appears here. Other work of Nancy's has been published in Rain Magazine, Barrelhouse, Avocet, and hipfish. She received her BA from Northwestern University and her MA from Portland State University. You can learn more about Nancy's writing at www.nancyslavin.com.

Prairie Dawn Smallwood ("Arrowhead Hunting") was born and raised in the high deserts of Wyoming. Now she resides in Ashland, Oregon, and recently graduated from Southern Oregon University with a B.A. in Literature. Prairie has been published in the West Wind Review, The Beacon, and in the 2005 edition of Voices!, the intercultural poetry e-journal of the Multicultural Pavilion: a multi-dimensional Internet project on multicultural education.

Alexandra Soiseth ("Baby Fat") earned her B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, her B.A.A. in Journalism from Ryerson University, and her M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the Assistant Director of the M.F.A. Writing Program at Sarah Lawrence, where she also teaches. She is a recipient of a Canada Council grant and an Ontario Arts Council grant. She is the former managing editor and communications director for Global City Review, a New York City-based literary magazine, and her stories have appeared in McGill Street Magazine, The Ryersonian, Life Rattle, and on BabyCenter.

Kathryn Lynard Soper ("Bitter, Sweet") is a mother of seven children. She is president of Segullah Group, a non-profit producer of personal writings; editor of Segullah, a literary journal by and for LDS (Mormon) women; and editor of Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives (Woodbine Press, 2007). She is currently writing a memoir about her first year with Thomas. Kathryn lives with her husband Reed and their children in the mountain west. You can learn more about her at www.kathrynlynardsoper.com.

Suzanne Speaker ("The Pirate Queen") has had assorted writing gigs throughout a life of moving, parenting, and moving some more. These have included spells writing advertising copy, church and women's organization newsletters, travel articles, book reviews, fundraising materials, radio commercials, fashion shows, radio commercials, and the odd cookbook. Her work has appeared in the Dallas Times Herald and Country Living magazine. She is the mother of Ben, age 31, and Mary, age 26, and currently lives the spoiled life of the expatriate wife in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sheila Squillante ("The Eyes Have It") is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in such places as Prairie Schooner, Phoebe, Clackamas Literary Review, and Glamour magazine, as well as online at TYPO and Unpleasant Event Schedule. She is a lecturer in English and the associate director of the MFA program at Penn State. She lives in State College, PA, with her husband Paul Bilger and their 17-month-old son, Rudy.

Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld's ("Festival") poems have appeared in Southwest Review, Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Travois: An Anthology of Texas Poetry, The Listening Eye, and Clark Street Review as well as online in Roads Literary Magazine. She taught English for seven years at SMU and the University of Maryland and worked for 13 years as an analyst in the TRIDENT Missile Program for the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. She has also done poetry therapy with forensic patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. Her main activity now, besides writing poetry, is volunteering with JewishGen, for whom she created three Web sites on perished Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.

Elaine Starkman("Under The Chuppah") began writing seriously with the birth of her fourth child in 1970. Much of her early work is related to writing and raising a family. Her later work includes a memoir about her elderly mother-in-law coming to live in California, titled Learning to Sit in the Silence: A Journal of Caretaking. She has co-edited the international collection Here I Am: Contemporary Jewish Stories from Around the World, which won a 1999 Oakland, CA/PEN Award. Some of her additional works appear in Famlly: Views from the Interior, (Graywolf), East Bay Guardian, Hanging Loose, Mothering, and others. She currently teaches memoir writing in Northern California and has just published her 5th chapbook of poems, MOVING: Poems 1992-2002, available by contacting her at estarkma@dvc.edu.

Nicole Collins Starsinic (The Smallest Things) lives in Davis, California with her family. Her greatest gifts are her husband, her stepdaughter (age 14), and her son (age 5). Nicole writes monthly articles on parenting issues for two local publications and uses her writing and web design background to promote sustainable agriculture issues in Yolo County. You can check out her websites at www.slowfoodyolo.com and
www.davisfarmtoschool.org.

Lisa Lowe Stauffer ("The Face in the Mirror") is a freelance writer, oboist, and aspiring children's novelist. At least that's what she claims. In reality, most of her time is spent searching for clean socks, volunteering at her children's schools, and driving carpools. She lives in Roswell, Georgia, with her husband and two children (ages 15 and 12), where every morning the family dog takes her on a squirrel-hunting expedition. Lisa's work has appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chattanooga Times, and too many corporate newsletters to count.

Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D. ("Chocolate" , "My Wild Child") is an award-winning poet and writer living in Columbia, South Carolina. She is author of two books and hundreds of poems and essays on healing women's bodies and spirits, and she is the mother of a four year old daughter and a fifteen year old stepdaughter. Visit her website.

Jill Stegman ("Birdman") lives on the central coast of California, and teaches at an alternative high school. She is married with a son in college, and a daughter in high school. Her work has previously appeared in such literary journals as Del Sol Review, North Atlantic Review, South Dakota Review, and Isotope. She has a story forthcoming in RE:AL.

Sharla A. Stewart ("The Assembly of Godwomen"), a writer and yoga teacher in Chicago, is mother to Michael, two and half, and baby number two, due any day now. Her writing for the University of Chicago Magazine has ranged across academia, covering the rise of behavioral economics, a recent rift in the discipline of political science, and the search for an elusive subatomic particle. "The Assembly of Godwomen" is her first published piece of creative writing.

Christy Stillwell ("Little Finch") has published work in various literary magazines and is the mother of two. She lives in Montana.

Tricia Stirling ("Model Mother") is a writer and mama from Sacramento, California, where she lives with her husband and two beautiful children. She is working on her first novel.

Alison Streit ("Having a Boy? Better Luck Next Time"") is a 35 year-old mother of two sons living in the Boston area. She works in a nonprofit adult education center, where she coordinates the creative writing program. She has written professionally as a researcher on civil rights and educational equity; this is her first published essay.

Tatiana Strelkoff ("Pointed Lessons") is a mother of two teenagers and has lived in Italy since 1980. She has published a book for children entitled The Changer with Rebecca House of San Francisco, and a book for young adults entitled Allison: a Story of First Love with the O’Brien Press of Ireland.

Shari MacDonald Strong ("The Great, Death-Defying Father") writes the "Zen and the Art of Child Maintenance" column and edits the Creative Nonfiction department for Literary Mama. Her essay, "On Wanting a Girl," appears in the anthology, It's a Girl, and she has been published in a number of publications, including Geez magazine. Shari worked as an editor and copywriter in the publishing industry for 15 years. She writes a blog from her home in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, photojournalist Craig Strong, and their children: grade-schooler Eugenia, born in Russia, and preschool sons Will and Mac, born via gestational surrogacy.

Nona Martin Stuck ("Transition" and "Getting a Girl") lives with two of her children in Columbia, South Carolina. A nurse and a waitress in previous incarnations, she now devotes most of her time to writing. She has won the South Carolina Fiction Project, and her work has appeared in O, The Oprah magazine; More Magazine; and previously in Literary Mama. She is a student in the MFA program in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is finishing a novel.

Kayt Sukel ("Normal") is a freelance consultant living in Hammersbach, Germany, with her husband, Nick, and son, Chet. Her writing has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, American Baby, and National Geographic Traveler, as well as other magazines. Whenever she receives a reprieve from chasing her son all over creation, she can be found holed up in the bathroom furtively reading books not written by Dr. Seuss or featuring Elmo.

Erin Sullivan ("Absolution"), works full time as a software developer and takes on occasional freelance web design and writing work. Her editorial experience includes teaching writing workshops at the University of Denver and Elon University, and her writing has appeared in Salon and The Independent Weekly. She lives in Durham, NC, with her husband and three young sons.

Charity Tahmaseb ("Learning to Lie Still") traded BDUs and combat boots for power suits and high heels, then traded those for the dissolute life of a technical writer. She splits her free time between her pee-wee football player and his sister, the aspiring mermaid. On most days she’s reminded that you can take the girl out of the Army, but you can’t always take the Army out of the girl.

Suzanne Thompson ("Adventures of a Teenage Super-Mom") lives in New Haven, CT, with her fiance' Greg and toddler Elliott. She is a stay-at-home mom, and is currently working on a novel based on her life story.

Suzanne R. Thurman ("Lifeblood") is a writer and musician. She is also the mother of two boys, ages 1 and almost 3, who are the source of inspiration for much of her work. Her poetry, prose, essays, and book reviews have appeared in many places, most recently Aries, Poem, RE:AL, Mobius, Amarillo Bay, and The Square Table.

Kim Todd (Under the Skin: Lessons in Transformation) is the author of Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis and Tinkering with Eden: a Natural History of Exotic Species in America. Her work has appeared in Sierra, Grist, Orion, and Backpacker, among other places. She lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and 3-year-old twins and can be found on-line at www (dot) kimtodd (dot) net.

Carine Topal ("Dreaming the Meuse Lizard") is mother to a 15-year-old. She is a veteran special education teacher and has taught poetry to children and adults for 15 years. Her work has appeared in The Best of the Prose Poem, Caliban, Pacific Review, Oberon, and many others. She is the recipient of poetry awards from: Spanish Moss Literary Journal, Water-Stone, Americas Review, Embers Magazine, and Half-Tones to Jubilee. Her new manuscript, As When, is looking for a home.

Bethany Torode ("Holy Water") is mama to two boys, Gideon and Rilian, and together with their literary papa Sam, they live in southwestern Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in the Best Christian Writing series (HarperSanFrancisco), as well as Country Almanac and Christianity Today. She is currently dreaming up an agricultural love novel.

Julie Traub ("The Superstitious Route") has taught creative writing to teenagers and has hosted bi-weekly writing critiques for adults. Now she gets her best story ideas from the adventures of her one-year-old boy, Simon. Julie lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and son. Please send feedback or observations to traub@comcast.net.

Judith Stadtman Tucker("Shock Value," A review of Mother Shock), editor of Mothers Movement Online, has been involved in research and advocacy related to mothers' issues since 1999. She served as the senior manager for the Mothers & More Advocacy program from 2000 - 2003, where her work focused on gathering resources and developing consciousness-raising programs for the organization's membership. She currently serves as a special advisor on advocacy issues to Mothers & More and other organizations that are committed to social change on behalf of mothers. She lives in Portsmouth, NH with her husband and two sons (age 6 and 10) and has contributed numerous articles on women's issues to the Seacoast Newspapers and the Portsmouth Herald. She has also been a regular contributor to the national bi-monthly publication of Mothers & More, the Mothers & More Forum. This review originally appeared in the October issue of Mothers Movement Online.

12-Step Mama is a stay-at-home Mom to her five-year-old son and attends a low-residency MFA program. Prior to motherhood, she worked as a technical writer and editor for a mindnumbingly long time. She has been an active member of her recovery program for 20 years. The opinions expressed in her column are hers alone and do not necessarily reflect those of any recovery program. Personal anonymity is any 12-step group's greatest protection -- it saves recovery programs from people like her, writers who just happen to be in recovery and therefore can't help writing about what saves their lives. Visit her blog.

Kim Todd "Under the Skin: Lessons in Transformation" is the author of Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis and Tinkering with Eden: a Natural History of Exotic Species in America. Her work has appeared in Sierra, Grist, Orion, and Backpacker, among other places. She lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and 3-year-old twins and can be found on-line at www (dot) kimtodd (dot) net.