Contributors, M-Q

Cat MacDiarmid ("See That?" and "Something New Under the Moon") has one daughter, Meadow, and a five-year-old grandson, Noah. They are the inspiration of much of her writing which includes poems, short stories, children's books and novels. Cat is currently working on a book titled Step On the Ghost. She is a member of the Acadiana Writing Project and credits this group with helping her to improve her writing over the last ten years. Cat has been teaching English in junior high school for twenty-seven years. She has a BA in English, a Masters in Education, and National Board Certification.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Sharon MacDonell (OpEd)started her career in Tokyo, working for Globe Net Productions and producing segments for a variety of clients, including the PBS/NHK co-production Asia Now. Stateside she's produced for such shows as ABC's World News Tonight, Inside Edition, and Forensic Files (the "Deadly Knowledge" episode). Currently, Sharon's a full-time mom and part-time journalist and essayist. She's been published by Christian Science Monitor, Signature Magazine, MetroParent, Strut, Suburban Lifestyles & Gihon River Review.

Jody Mace ("Bedtime Stories")lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband, Stan, and her children, Kyla and Charlie. Her essays have appeared in Mothering Magazine, Brain Child Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Mockingbird Journal, and others. She works as a school librarian, where other people's children are often pleased to read books that she recommends.

Margaret MacInnis ("It Could Be Me"), 36 years old, has no children of her own, and is slowly making peace with this fact. She has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Queens University of Charlotte, NC and she will be a fellow at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City. Her poetry has appeared in Lyric, and she has a piece forthcoming in Brevity, An Online Journal of Literary Nonfiction. She has written a memoir called Nothing Left to Burn, and is actively searching for an agent.

J. Annie MacLeod ("Meiosis") is an associate professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland where she teaches nineteenth-century literature, women studies, and fiction writing. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her creative work has appeared journals such as The Cream City Review, Briar Cliff Review, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Mother to seven-year-old Katharine, a devoted reader and writer herself, Kate is J. Annie's most wondrous and humbling creation.

Kate MacVean ( "Mothering Abroad" is no stranger to living abroad. A semester in Spain was soon followed by a summer in the mountains of Mexico, and then a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. Now she is happily settled in a town outside of Madrid, where she lives with her husband and their two sons. She graduated from Binghamton University with a degree in Creative Writing, and her work has appeared in Philosophical Mother and Tattoo Highway. E-mail Kate here.

Dayna Macy ("Raging Mom") is a writer living in Berkeley, CA. She is the proud, joyful mother of Matthew Benjamin and Jack Henry Rosenberg. Her writing has appeared in Self, Tricycle, and other national publications, and she is a frequent contributor to Yoga Journal Magazine, and Salon.com, where this article originally appeared.

Cheryl Maddalena("Mommies") is mother to Andrew aged 19 months. She is almost finished with her doctorate in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and is a frequent competitor at the Berkeley Poetry Slam. If you like to cheer for poets or want folks to cheer for you, find your local poetry slam at www.poetryslam.com.

Heather Magruder ("Shaggy Hair, Sagging Pants and Split Feelings") is a freelance writer and teaching artist who lives in the Piedmont region of South Carolina with her husband, two sons, and daughter. She is on the South Carolina Arts Commission's Artist Roster in fiction and poetry and is pubished in a variety of periodicals. Heather is senior editor of Greenville Magazine and associate editor of SouthCarolina Magazine. She is currently working on a collection of essays about her Scottish and Irish grandmothers and great aunts.

Lisa Suhair Majaj ("Answers") is a Palestinian-American writer, scholar and mother. She has co-edited three collections of critical essays: Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers, Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist , and Intersections: Gender, Nation and Community in Arab Women's Novels .' Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Worlds in our Words, Contemporary American Women Writers , and Homemaking:Women Writers on the Politics and Poetics of Home. Her essay on balancing parenting and the writing life, "Email to the Muse," is forthcoming in Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab-American Women on Writing. She lives in Cyprus with her husband, her seven year old daughter and her two year old son (who, when not trying to disassemble the computer, frequently helps with typing).

Jo Malin ("Books and Babies") is a Project Director in the School of Education and Human Development and Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is the author of The Voice of the Mother: Embedded Maternal Narratives in Twentieth-Century Women's Autobiographies (Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), from which this piece is excerpted, with permission, and co-editor with Victoria Boynton of Herspace: Women, Writing, and Solitude (The Haworth Press, 2003), and the Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography (Greenwood Press, forthcoming 2005). She is a mother of two and a grandmother of two.

Kate Maloy's ("How to Write a Novel")son is now 21 years old and taking seriously the message she tried to impart: Follow your heart; do what you dream. She's happy that he heard her, but she never anticipated all these sleepless nights. Kate's first novel will be published by Algonquin Books in Fall, 2007. She is also the author of the memoir A Stone Bridge North: Reflections in a New Life and has published or served as ghost writer in fields as diverse as education, women's reproductive choices, art history, and medicine. Please visit Kate's website at Kate Maloy.

Marianne Mansfield ("I Am a Stepmother") is a writer come lately to the craft. After more than 30 years as a public educator in Michigan, she retired and turned her attention to writing. She writes weekly essays for a newspaper in southwest Michigan, and is working on a collection of short stories. She is occasionally overcome by a poem, but not often.

Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D. ("Poker Face") is a freelance writer, consultant, and parent educator. She is the editor and co-author of Toddler: Real-Life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love (Seal Press), which won the Independent Publishers Book Association Award. Her writing has been published in Ms. Magazine; Pregnancy; Newsday; Mothering Magazine; Brain, Child; World Pulse; and dozens of other national and local magazines and newspapers. She has eaten fried crickets in Niger, appeared live on prime-time TV in France, and performed the can-can in America. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, with her husband and three small children. Find out more about her at: www.ToddlerTrueStories.com.

Jeannie Marshall ("Love and Money") worked as a features writer at the National Post in Toronto before moving to Italy. She has published articles in the The Globe and Mail (Canada's national newspaper), as well as in Saturday Night Magazine and The Walrus Magazine, among other Canadian publications, and in Brick. She lives with her family in Rome.

Toni Martin ("If I Were") is a physician and writer who lives in Berkeley, CA. Her book, How to Survive Medical School, is long out of print, but recently her essays have appeared in The Berkeley Monthly, The Threepenny Review and Health Affairs. Her three children, Andrew 24, Chris 21, and Anna 18, saved her from a dry workaholic life.

Nancy Massand ("Dump Trucks") teaches middle school students at an independent school in Queens, New York. She and her husband reside in Queens with their youngest daughter, who will be a college senior in the fall. Their two older daughters are married and living in Queens and the Boston area. Nancy has been writing since she knew how to talk, pretty much, and is currently procrastinating on her second novel.

Jennifer Mattern ("Muse of Fire, Muse of Floss") is a freelance writer, playwright, and underslept mama of Sophie, 3, and Hannah, 9 months. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Fierce and Brain, Child magazines. Jenn can be contacted via her website: www.jennifermattern.com.

Kathleen McCall ("Gullwing," "One True Note") is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC, with her husband Dale is a daughter, mother of two daughters, math tutor, and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama, Eclectica, Skirt! Magazine, Tourist2000, Buzzwords (UK), The Story Garden, and Ink Pot Literary Journal.

Kelly McClymer (Diapers, Dishes, and Demons) has published seven historical romance novels and several short fantasy stories, all of which contain elements inspired by her 25-and-counting years spent raising her three children with her husband in Maine. This story was hatched during a graduate writing class that followed a throat-aching marathon Dr. Seuss reading at home back when all the kids were shorter than their mother. Visit her website at http://kellymcclymer.com

Melanie McGauran ("Peeling Back the Truth")started as a local free-lance writer, publishing over 40 feature articles for a Chicago area newspaper while she stayed home with her son. She eventually took time to compile her own stories about family life with a teenager. With college approaching, she has returned to work, part-time, and now screens content for Legacy.com. She lives with her husband, Dennis, and their son Will, and admits that she still watches too much T.V., but she's quick to change the channel on any cooking shows calling for an onion.

Mona McKinlay ("The Lion in the Garden"), a teacher and psychotherapist, lives in Edinburgh. She has an MPhil in Writing from the University of Glamorgan, and is studying for her PhD at the University of St. Andrews. She has been published in Cutting Teeth, Subtletea, Race Today, and City Limits. Recently highly commended in The New Writer competition, her story, "Sugar Plum Fairy" will shortly be published in The New Writer. Mona is working on her first collection of short stories and novel, The Hypnotist’s House. She has a grown-up son, stepdaughter, and stepson.

Lisa McMann ("When You're Ten") is married to Matt, who sings as much as she writes. She has a ten-year-old son, Kilian, and a seven-year-old daughter, Kennedy. If you asked her today what her favorite ages are, she'd say ten and seven. Lisa forgot all about writing when her kids were younger, but now that they can make their own sandwiches and bake a frozen pizza if necessary, she has more time to devote to her writing. She especially loves it when the kids climb into bed with her and write stories with her. You can find her fiction at various places around the Web like Pindelyboz, The Glut, and MonkeyBicycle. She also has work published in print journals like Sexy Stranger and Gator Springs Gazette, and is forthcoming in Snow Monkey.

Lisa McNamara ("A Daughter Like Me") is a freelance recruiter for computer-animated and visual effects films and is currently working on her MFA in creative writing at the University of San Francisco. Although she has no children, she has one very energetic dog who demonstrates a toddler's predisposition for refusing to take naps and disturbing her whenever she tries to write.

Lisa Meaux ("Acts of Contrition") is the mother of two adult sons and the companion of a chocolate lab. She teaches and lives in southern Louisiana, where she recently joined a writing group that has inspired her to write down the stories she has been babysitting in her head. "Acts of Contrition" is her first publication.

Ellen Meister ("Alone With Cooper") believes that if you scratch the surface of the PTA, you'll uncover enough heartache, joy, and sex to fill a book. She tried it herself and gave it the title George Clooney is Coming to Applewood. Look for it in bookstores from Morrow/Avon in early 2006. Her short work has been published in numerous print and online journals, most of which are easily Googled. She lives, writes and carpools in the suburbs of New York with her husband and three children.

Claire Merle ("Tight Jeans") lives in Paris with her husband and beautiful son, Sean. “Tight Jeans” is her first publication - Yippee! Between changing nappies and singing “Old MacDonald” she is battling to complete her first novel. She may be contacted at: clairemerle@noos.fr

Hilary Meyerson ("Voice: A Study in the Writer's Art") is a writer, mother, and recovering lawyer. She has a BA in English literature from Middlebury College and a JD from the University of Washington. She has been selected for writer's residencies at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island and Caldera Arts in Oregon. She lives in Seattle with her family and can be reached at hilarymeyerson@ hotmail.com. She has recently finished the manuscript of her first novel, Wetwood.

Karen Maezen Miller ("What to Tell the Children") is a wife, mother, and author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood (see Literary Mama review here). In her life as a Zen Buddhist priest, she still cuts the crusts off her daughter's peanut butter sandwiches every day. She lives in Sierra Madre, California, and practices at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles. She can always be found at www.mommazen.com.

S.A. Miller ("Motherkind") embraces mothering her own children.

Sandra A. Miller ("Barbara Delinsky Does Not Need Me")writes and publishes prolifically about relationships, often her own. Recently Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, turned Sandra's personal essay about meeting her psychologist husband Mark into a short Hollywood film called WAIT produced by Glamour Magazine. Sandra and Mark help other people's relationships at their website HaveAQuickie dot net.

Sandra Miller ("The Itch") is the mother of Phineas and his little sister Adeline, who does not have eczema. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Modern Bride, Walking, The Hartford Courant Sunday Magazine, Writer's Forum, and more. Since completing her first novel, she has begun a new project with her psychologist husband, writing an irreverent self-help book for couples. She has also started a local organization called Mothers Excelling Together. At night, when she's not sleeping, she dreams of being famous.

Terri Minsky ("The Mother Load") is the creator of several television shows, including "Lizzie McGuire," "Less Than Perfect" and "The Geena Davis Show." She is the executive producer of "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and has written for "Sex and the City," "Flying Blind," and "Central Park West." She lives in New York City with her husband and two children, and frequently can be found 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles. Stay-at-home mom, part-time working mom, 80+ hours-per-week sitcom mom: she's done it all and lived to write about it.

Liz Abrams-Morley ("Necessary Turns") is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Learning to Calculate the Half Life (Zinka Press, 2001), a chapbook forthcoming from Plan B Press entitled What Winter Reveals, the chapbook Memory Waltz. and poems and stories that have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. Liz lives in Pennsylvania. where she is a frequent artist-in-residence in schools throughout the state. She is a co-founder of Around the Block Writers Collaborative and mother of 25-year-old Erica and 22-year-old Jesse (and wil soon become a mother-in-law!).

Molly Moynahan ("How to Be a Stepmother") is the author of three published novels, the most recent Stone Garden, a New York Times Notable Book for 2003. She teaches High School English in Evanston, Ill. and misses New Jersey. She has a thirteen-year-old son, a sixteen-year-old stepdaughter and two grown-up step sons.

J.D. Munro ("The Dogs of Sayulita") is at work on her book about fertility issues, entitled Not Suitable for Children. Her essays about multiple miscarriages have appeared in: They Lied! True Tales Of Pregnancy, Secrets & Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women's Friendships, The Knitter's Gift, Under the Sun, Room Of One's Own, Calyx, Iris, Kalliope. Her fiction has appeared pseudonymously in Best American Erotica 2004, Best Women's Erotica 2003, Ripe Fruit, Shameless, Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica No. 3, and others. Her journey towards motherhood is incomplete (and that's okay). Contact her at ginproductions@hotmail.com.

Karen Murphy spent ten years in the corporate world and twelve more as a stay-at home Waldorf mom to her children before remembering that she had really also been a writer all that time. Karen is the Lead Author at an upcoming green/eco site, and she writes Parenting Without a Manual at Work It, Mom and a column about special-needs parenting in Long Journey on a Short Bus at Imperfect Parent. Karen is also a channel (like a spiritual coach) and she recently moved to the Pacific Northwest. Her children still live in Pennsylvania, and Karen is now blogging her life here.

Joanna Nesbit ("The God Question") lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, two children, one cat, and a fish. Once a technical writer, she now divides her time between creative writing, parenting, and Ultimate Frisbee. Her work has appeared in Europe from a Backpack, Rhapsody in Writing: An Eclectic Collection, and several regional parenting magazines. She writes regularly for Entertainment News Northwest. This is her first essay published online.

Catherine Newman ("Daddy Lover") has published poetry in Mothering and essays in the anthologies Toddler and The Bitch in the House, among other places. Her book, Waiting for Birdy, about the year she was pregnant her second baby, is due out in March. She writes a weekly column, Bringing Up Ben and Birdy, for BabyCenter and lives in Western Massachusetts with her family.

Susan O'Doherty ("Sluggers") is the mother of an 11-year-old son. Her writing has been featured in Eureka Literary Magazine, Northwest Review, Apalachee Review, Ballyhoo Stories, Eclectica, VerbSap, Carve, Reflection's Edge, Word Riot, Style & Sense, Phoebe, and the anthologies It's a Boy!(Seal Press, 2005), The Best of Carve, Volume VI, and Familiar (The People's Press, 2005). New work is forthcoming in About What Was Lost: Women Writers on Miscarriage (Penguin, 2007). Her book on women and creativity will be published by Seal Press in the spring of 2007. She is also a psychologist specializing in issues affecting writers. Her advice column for writers, "The Doctor is In," appears each Friday on MJ Rose's blog, "Buzz, Balls, and Hype".

Michelle O'Neil ("Infant Absolution") is a former radio news reporter and a registered nurse. She lives in Lynchburg, Virginia, with her husband and two children. Michelle has contributed to the upcoming anthology A Cup of Comfort for Parents of Autistic Children, due out in 2007, and is currently working on a memoir. She blogs at www.michelleoneilwrites.blogspot.com.

Lisa Ortiz ("Matinal") lives, writes, and mothers two daughters ages six and three in rural Northern California. Her poems have appeared in Poesy, Princeton Arts Review, Wolf Head Quarterly, and the anthology Split Verse: Poems to Heal Your Heart. Read more about her and her amazing poet friends at www.saturdaypoets.org.

Marjorie Osterhout ("Chick Lit Grows Up: A Review of Sweet Ruin", "In Honor of Tillie Olsen", and "She Makes a Small Sound") lives in Seattle with her husband and son. She has authored two non-fiction books, writes the popular parenting blog MomBrain, contributed to the book anthology It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons (Seal Press, Nov. 2005), and has written many features and essays for magazines such as Parenting and ePregnancy. She cut her editorial teeth at Little, Brown and Co. and went on to work in high tech before coming to her senses and returning to the creative world.

Katherine Ozment ("Our Son, the Ring Bearer") is a freelance writer living in Berkeley, California, with her husband, son, and newborn daughter. Her work has been published in National Geographic magazine, Salon, the Chicago Tribune, Boston magazine, and Brain, Child.

Susannah Elisabeth Pabot (Hope; A Foreign Love: A Review of Losing Kei) holds an MA in Children’s Literature and worked as a London-based journalist specializing in the children’s book market before moving to Paris with her French husband and three-year-old daughter. Now a freelance writer and teacher, she is currently working on her first short story collection.

Brett Paesel ("Red Hurt", "Prenatal Guru to the Stars") lives in Los Angeles and is the mother of two boys. She has developed and written shows for Comedy Central, Oxygen, and The HBO Workspace. Currently, she performs her own material at spoken word venues around town -- most notably, Sit n Spin, The Triangle Room, and Uncaberet's Say the Word. Her short story, "Slow to Warm," appears in the book Toddler: Real-life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love. She has also published essays in Brain,Child and Hip mama. She is currently writing a collection of essays called On Vaginal Heroics.

Polly Pagenhart ("A Whorish Madonna," A Review of Mommy's Little Girl) is a writer, educator, and lesbian dad (a.k.a. "Baba") living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Carol Paik("Little Co-op on the Upper West Side") is a frequent contributor to Brain,Child, and her work will appear in Tin House later this year. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Susan Parker ("Naked in California") is an aunt who has traveled extensively with her three-year-old nephew, Bryce Sho Parker. She is also mentor to 15-year-old Jernae Lillian Carter, who first appeared on her doorstep in Oakland, California when she was seven years old. Parker's memoir,Tumbling After, Pedaling Like Crazy After Life Goes Downhill, was published by Crown in 2002.

Patricia Parkinson ("Live Band") lives in Langley, British Columbia, with her husband and two children, who make her laugh at herself and other things she once took too seriously. She is very happy.

Janet Paszkowski ("The Goddess of Destiny") is a freelance fiction writer, poet and visual artist. A graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she has lived in Georgia for the past 12 years with her husband and three children. Her works of fiction and poetry have received numerous regional and national awards, and her work has been published in several literary journals and mainstream venues like Words of Wisdom, Vermont Ink, Thresholds Quarterly and numerous on-line publications like The Writer’s Room. She has also conducted memoir and fiction writing workshops in the Atlanta area for Borders Books, Barnes & Noble, Georgia Writer’s and The Pincknyville Arts Center.

Victoria Patterson ("Baby Talk" and "Morphine and Mother's Milk") is the mother of two boys, Cole and Ry Patterson, ages six and three, and lives in South Pasadena, California. Her work has also appeared in HipMama. She is currently at work on her second novel. When not taking care of her kids or writing, she earns money as a waitress at a fine dining establishment. She is known to tip well. Victoria Patterson can be reached at torycole@earthlink.net.

Faith Paulsen ("Varanasi ")lives in Norristown Pennsylvania. Her fiction has appeared in Wild River Review and she has authored a nonfiction book, Fun With the Family in Pennsylvania, published by Globe Pequot Press. She is married to a great guy and is the mom of three very different sons, two entering adulthood and the youngest just on the verge of adolescence.

Patricia R. Payette ("Starving for Affection," A Review of How I Learned to Cook) is a mother and college administrator with a PhD in English. Her book reviews appear at womenwriters.net and in the journal of the Assocation for Research on Mothering, among others. Her essay on her wedding and marriage, "The Feminist Wife?: Notes From a Political Engagement," appears in Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire (Four Walls, Eight Windows Press, 2001) and will be reprinted this year by the Canadian Scholars' Press.

Diane Payne ("What Would Betty Do?") is the mother of twelve-year-old Ania in a dry town in the Bible belt. Her work has appeared in many publications including, Full Circle Journal, Drexel Online Journal, Hip Mama, Sojourners and Monkey Bicycle. Diane teaches at University of Arkansas-Monticello.

Day Penaflor ("Born") is a teacher and writer. She is a graduate of Boston University and Columbia Teachers College and has studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is a freelance writer with publications in Mommy Too! Magazine, Creativity Portal, and Dream/Girl Magazine. She and her husband live on Long Island with their tortoise and Boston Terrier.

Mary Hilldore Peters ("Twelfth Day") is a former banker turned stay-at-home mom who still has an aversion to olives and unbagged milk jugs. Her work has appeared in The Grand Rapids Press and jugglezine. She and her husband Jay live in Holland, Michigan, with their greatest GIFT, Emma, who was born on New Year's Day eight years ago. Mary can be reached at mhpeters@sbcglobal.net.

Deesha Philyaw writes a bi-monthly column and occasional book reviews and profiles for Literary Mama. She is also a columnist for Parents' Action For Children. Deesha has written for Essence Magazine, Wondertime magazine (a Disney publication), and reviewed books for The Washington Post. Her fiction has been published in the online literary journals The New Yinzer and Inkburns. She holds a B.A. in economics from Yale University and a Master's degree in education. In her pre-mommy, pre-writing life, she was a management consultant, briefly, and then an elementary school teacher. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Deesha currently lives in Pittsburgh with her two daughters. She can be contacted at deesha@thelastwordllc.com.

Norah Piehl ("Born and Raised in this Dead-End Town," A Review of Growing Up Fast; "The Woman in the Moon," A review of Guarding the Moon; and "Fear of Failing," A Review of A Potent Spell) is a freelance writer and editor whose reviews of children's and adult books have appeared in numerous print and online sources, including The Horn Book Guide and Brain, Child. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and ten-month-old son.

Sarah Pinto ("Third Month") is the mother of a two-year-old girl and is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in anthropology at Princeton University in 2003. Her dissertation on childbearing, infant death, and rural development in northern India received the Sardar Patel Award in 2004. She is currently conducting research on post-partum depression. Her essays and articles on topics related to motherhood, birth, and traditional midwifery have been published in journals and collections in the US and India.

Catherine Platt ("Best Home") is mother to her son Isaac and is pursuing in earnest her life-long ambition to write. After quitting a career in international development, she earned an MA in Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation at Sussex University, England. Catherine, Isaac, and his father, Ethan are about to embark on a new adventure as they are moving to Sichuan Province, China, for two years. This is her first published poem.

Carrie Pomeroy ("Let Down") has published stories in The Baltimore Review and The Laurel Review. More of her work can be seen at www.slowtrains.com and www.wordriot.org. The mother of a three-year-old son and a newborn daughter, she's working on a collection of personal essays about motherhood. She lives with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ann Whitfield Powers ("When the Bough Breaks") lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two sons, Patrick, age 9 and Zachary, age 3. She holds an MFA and has been published in the Oregon Literary Review, Camas, and the Miami Herald, and has a piece forthcoming in Brain, Child. She is currently working on a memoir, tentatively titled Isn’t Forty Kind of Old for That?

Catherine Esposito Prescott ("Meeting the Horizon with Connor at Nine Months") holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. She is a full-time mother and part-time writing professor with Miami-Dade College's Virtual College. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines, including 5AM and Spoon River Poetry Review. Catherine lives in Miami Beach with her husband, Andrew, and their toddler, Connor Burke.

Jayne Pupek ("Why I Write in the Bathroom Closet") holds an MA in Psychology and lives near Richmond, Virginia. She is the mother of three children by adoption, and also tends a menagerie of parrots and other creatures. Her fiction and poetry has appeared in publications including, SageWoman, Moondance, Prairie Dyke, Eidos, Pulse, Dead Mule and Studio One. Work is forthcoming in Coffeehouse Poetry, and Smokelong Quarterly. She is always open to hear from women who write, and can be reached at JaynePupek@aol.com or WomanInk@aol.com.