New from All Things That Matter Press -- Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages, compiled and edited by Carol Smallwood and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent. This unique collection includes over fifty articles by more than thirty-five diverse American women who revisit, celebrate, and share defining moments in their lives. Readers will see the universal in milestones of body, mind, family, career, and personal empowerment -- whether joyous or difficult, chosen or unexpected, common or rare.

The book's editors write in the Introduction:

Our lives as women, and indeed as human beings, are full of passages. There are the passages we are unaware of even at the time -- from birth to perhaps taking our first tentative steps. As adults, there are the passages that occur to us -- those beyond our control (for example, losing a loved one, being diagnosed with an illness, or being victim of a crime), and the passages we choose (such as getting a degree in mid-life, adopting a child, or seeking help for addiction). This book celebrates our passages as women, from one moment into another, from one door through to the next.

Told by talented and award-winning writers, Contemporary American Women offers intimate glimpses into the lives of our sisters, friends, aunts, mentors, wives, grandmothers, partners, mothers, daughters, and ultimately, ourselves.

Look for two essays in this collection by Literary Mama's own Birthing the Mother Writer columnist Cassie Premo Steele, as well as from several other Literary Mama contributors such as Yelizaveta P. Renfro, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, and Sonya S. Feher.