Chris Colin has written for the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Smithsonian, and McSweeney's Quarterly, among others. A former editor at Salon, Colin is the author of What Really Happened to the Class of '93? (Broadway Books, 2004).
Caroline Grant, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief and a columnist for LiteraryMama.com. She is also coeditor of the anthology Mama, Ph.D.: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life (Rutgers University Press, 2008).
Kate Moses is coeditor of the essay anthologies Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race & Themselves (HarperCollins, 2005) and Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Villard, 1999). A former senior editor and staff writer at Salon, Moses is also the author of Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath (St. Martin's, 2003) and Cakewalk: A Memoir (Dial, 2010).
Autumn Stephens is coeditor of the East Bay Monthly and has edited two anthologies of personal essays: Roar Softly and Carry a Great Lipstick (Inner Ocean, 2004) and The Secret Lives of Lawfully Wedded Wives (Inner Ocean, 2006). She is also the author of the Wild Women book series and has written for the New York Times, San Francisco magazine, and numerous Bay Area publications.
Enroll Now:
Berkeley, Sat. Feb. 12, 10 am, 1 meeting
Pluff mud is the rich, fertile, mucky soil that lines the harbors, marshes, and tidal creeks around Charleston, SC. Like the primordial ooze, it gives life. Pluff Mud Mag also gives life - to local writers. Pluff Mud Mag brings you new voices, and new visions. To submit your work, check out our Submissions page. For other information, you can contact the managing editor, Dr. Amy Hudock, at amy.hudock@tridenttech.edu
Literary Mama is proud to participate in World Read Aloud Day, March 9th. Get a jump on your read alouds with our Essential Reading list of favorites coming in February (click here for last year's list). And if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, save the date for a Pajama Party reading, Wednesday March 9th at 6 PM at Books, Inc. in Laurel Village. LM's editor-in-chief Caroline Grant will be reading favorite picture books with LM contributors Lisa Harper and Nicki Richesin.
For more information, and to find events in your area, please visit the LitWorld website.
Do you keep a journal - or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.
Three times a month, I'll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation - just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.
And who knows? Maybe you'll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you'll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you'll enjoy re-reading it months--and years--down the road.
Also: Every three months, I'll accept submissions and choose a few pieces to post for LM readers to enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Consider these findings from The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents, a survey published by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2006:
More than four in ten children under 2 years old watch TV every day and nearly one in five watch videos or DVDs every day.Most parents say they are in the same room with their child while they're watching TV either all or most of the time (88% of those whose children this age watch TV in a typical day).
And these quotes from the survey focus groups:
"It makes life easier now, but in the long run, when they're older and starting to run into all these problems, I think I'll wish I wouldn't have let them do it when they were five." Mother of a 4-6 year old in Columbus, OhioRead the entire report here."I don't think media has anything to do with how I am as a parent. I would never sit her in front of the television so I could go and do something. I learned a long time ago that the dishes can wait until tomorrow. It can all wait. I have seen my 15 year-old grow up in the blink of an eye...I take advantage of all the time I can get." Mother of a 1-3 year-old, Irvine, California
"For our little guy, TV time is all of us on the couch together. We'll talk about what's going on. If it's Blue's Clues, we'll answer back. We only do 20 minutes a night." Mother of a 1-3 year old from Irvine, California
"I watch CSI...[S]he sits down and watches with me. I don't know how harmful it is to her. It's something gory, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She hasn't had any nightmares from it." Mother of a 1-3 year old, Irvine, California
Journal Entry: Do you have house rules about television? List them. Then, write about a favorite television show from your childhood. What made it special?
Literary Reflections is pleased to present our featured writing prompt response from January. Earlier this month, we asked "How public or private is your journal? Is it record of events, a list of secret desires, an inventory of frustrations? Describe your process and the audience for whom you write."
Brenda Granger wrote:
The Exercise of Writing
I have few passions, one is writing, and the other is thinking about writing. When I am not writing, I think about it, and when I am not thinking about it, I'm writing. I am in love with the idea of writing, and if you came to my house for wine and brie, I'd show you my Smithsonian-worthy journal collection. It is lovely. There is a tan-soft-leather-bound variety, ones bought in India with thick, textured paper, a Moleskin, and the type sold for pennies on the dollar in discount bins at Target. I have a brand new one that I bought last week in a boutique that sells homemade soap, artist made jewelry, linens from Ireland, made to look like vintage furniture, and books on obscure subjects like the Zen of Me. Pretty little things that I've needed all my life. (I also have an obsession for pens; you would never see a BIC in my hand. I cringe when I have to use pens that come in boxes of twelve.)
I have journals and pens, all the makings for a perfect romance. But we don't get along so well, and usually bicker about which topics to write about, love letters, what I did today, the color of the sky, how I feel, did I really, etc. What to journal about is a subject that has plagued me since reading Why I Write, by Joan Didion. I don't write about what I do during the day, rather where my head and heart are sitting on the subject of me (the written journal). The e-journal is different. It's my writer's journal. I frolic. I play with voice and topics, usually the mystery of life. I keep a blog for this journal. It's not tied to my name because of the frolicking.
I arrange my primary life around my passions. I've responsibilities that pull at my hem, and often unravel me row by row. These obligations, like my passions are not disposable. My writing self I carry with me, but the room where the passion and I unite, my bedroom, pulls at me the moment I walk through the door at the end of the workday. She says to me, at last you are home. I drop my bags on the tile floor in the kitchen waiting for the flock to hover and pour out the events of their day. I operate on two levels,
- Listen attentively and speak when it's appropriate to interject;
- Listen to the murmur of the words in my head, 'do you think she will pick me tonight, or will she pick you, will she write about him again, or will she work on our book;
From the kitchen where I chop onions, heat olive oil, uncork wine, and grill asparagus, I feel the passion to write heat my skin. Writing is what keeps my heart pumping. The gym takes care of the outside, but it's the exercise of writing that centers me emotionally.
###
Brenda can be reached at emmarose2(at)gmail(dot)com.
A new Literary Reflections writing prompt is published the first weekend of every month. Responses are accepted until the 15th, and I promise to comment shortly after that. Look for it - we'd love to hear from you.
The Tiger Mama discussion continues to generate discussion. Check out this view from Suzanne Kamata, Literary Mama's Fiction Editor.
Do you subscribe to Literary Mama's E-Zine?
The weekly e-zine features our latest selections and highlights timely pieces from our archives. This week's issue includes three new columns (Solo, How Does Your Bookshelf Grow, Birthing the Writer Mother) and three pieces from the archives (a short story by Toni Martin, creative non-fiction by Kelsi Thomas, column from Senior Editor Shari MacDonald Strong).
Subscribe here to have it delivered to your inbox.
And don't forget about the other ways you can keep in touch with Literary Mama. Connect with us through an RSS Feed, Facebook or Twitter account.
Workshop with Columnist Cassie Premo Steele
http://www.literarymama.com/columns/birthingthemotherwriter/
This winter, Cassie Premo Steele's seasonal Women Writing Naturally Workshop will take place on the feast of Brigid, an Irish saint and the Celtic goddess of poetry, healing, and craft. This workshop, open to all women, will allow time for journaling, meditation, outdoor reflection, and deepening one's relationship to the fire of inspiration for the coming spring. Cassie Premo Steele is a Pushcart nominated poet, author of seven books, and beloved creativity coach. Cost is $30. To pre-register, get directions, or inquire about more information, message Cassie Premo Steele through Facebook or through the Contact link at her website, www.cassiepremosteele.com. More about Brigid can be found at:
http://www.lunaea.com/goddess/creativity/brigid.html
Do you keep a journal - or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.
Three times a month, I'll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation - just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.
And who knows? Maybe you'll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you'll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you'll enjoy re-reading it months--and years--down the road
.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three kids, three strategies for playing Monopoly: My daughter buys every property she lands on, no matter what it is. One son collects the railroads, utilities and one set of properties on each side of the board. The other son banks his money until he can purchase Boardwalk and Park Place, then loads each with houses and hotels.
Each strategy has worked at one point or another during the past ten years. Of course, when one strategy works, the other two don't, so we're all ready for a break after about an hour of play. Then--even if we agreed to the rules at the game's onset--the negotiations begin. Do we play for an additional 10 minutes or until someone goes bankrupt? Do we lend money or force the one who's broke to mortgage property?
We've had plenty of tears and angry words, but more often, our living room has been filled with giggles and high-fives, especially when one of the three lands on my property undetected. And once, when we extended a single game through a three-day blizzard, each child experienced wealth and bankruptcy, several times.
Monopoly is only one of many board games in our cabinet. It doesn't have a gold seal proclaiming it "Parent's Choice" or a "Top Ten" pick of the year, but the blue-rimmed board and its wood tokens--the game my grandparents purchased in the early 1940s--is the board game most frequently requested in our home.
Whether we play for one hour or for several, our discussions are always lively. One minute we're consulting the rulebook's small type for the length of time a player can stay in Jail (three turns plus $50 fine) or about how to calculate Income Tax (ten percent of player's total worth). The next minute, we're defining "monopolist," "Community Chest," and early twentieth-century society. Ultimately, our conversation turns local, with questions and comments about the needy and the "Rich Uncle Pennybags" (or "Mr. Monopoly") of our community, where we fit in, and what we can do.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
Journal Entry: What's your family's favorite board game? Describe the last time you played it together. What discussions--in addition to the rules of the game--occurred?
Straight As and piano lessons. Bans on TV and playdates. What's the deal with Tiger Mothers?
LM Marketing and Publicity Manager, Lisa Chiu, has some thoughts about Amy Chua's controversial memoir. You can read Lisa's comments here AND an essay she wrote during college here. Leave a comment here on the blog or join the discussion on Literary Mama's Facebook page.
Call for Submissions
Demeter Press
is seeking submissions for an edited collection on:
Mothering and Psychoanalysis:
Clinical, Sociological & Feminist Perspectives
Editor: Petra Büskens
Pub Date: 2012/2013
Deadline for abstracts: June 1, 2011
This book aims to analyse the intersecting territories of mothering and psychoanalysis from feminist, sociological and psychoanalytic/psychotherapeutic perspectives. Not since Nancy Chodorow's The Reproduction of Mothering has there been a sustained analysis of mothering from this three-fold perspective. This book seeks to analyse mothering and psychoanalytic/therapeutic theory and practice from within any (or all) of these perspectives. In particular, while there has been much psychoanalytic focus on mothers and mothering, there has been less focus on psychoanalysis from the perspective of mothers or as a form of mothering. As Chodorow said in her forward to the new edition of The Reproduction of Mothering (1999), at the time of writing, hers was the daughter's perspective, however, her own development has led her to be sceptical about some of her claims. How does the mother's perspective shift psychoanalytic theory? What is the position of the mother in psychoanalytic theory and practice?
Motherhood studies is a new research area that privileges the theoretical, experiential and ontological vantage point of mothers (O'Reilly, 2010). This volume seeks submissions that draw on this perspective to engage a two-way discussion with psychoanalysis also drawing on clinical, feminist, critical theory and sociological perspectives. In addition to the psychoanalytic analysis of mothering, the editor encourages submissions that examine how psychoanalysis - and psychotherapy generally - constitutes a form of commodified care in the global economy potentially working to fill what Arlie Hochschild has memorably called the 'care deficit' (2003). Is care transmuting into the commercial domain? And, if so, what is the gendered composition of this care? How does the emergence of 'therapy culture' (Furedi, 2004), seen as the domain of self-exploration, compete with biomedical models of mental health and illness? If psychoanalysis is, as Freud said, 'a cure through love' then how is the 'emotion work' of the therapist analogous to mothering?
Selected topics may include but are not limited to:
Psychoanalytic analyses of mothers, mothering and motherhood; sociological analyses of 'therapy culture' and the feminisation of care work, including psychotherapy; the commercialisation of intimacy; psychoanalysis/psychotherapy as a form of mothering; maternal perspectives on psychoanalytic theory and practice; psychoanalytic mothers including Helene Deutsche, Karen Horney, Melanie Klein, Anna Freud and more recent thinkers such as Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Nancy McWilliams, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva; Freud's relation to his own mother; clinical case studies of mothers; the 'good enough mother' (Winnicot); the 'bad', or pathologised mother; the mother-child bond and its relation to mental health and illness; attachment theory and therapy including the work of John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, and Peter Fonagy; infant observation research; the transference relationship; 'transference love'; object relations theory.
Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts should be 250 words. Please also include a brief biography (50 words).
Deadline for abstracts June 1, 2011
Accepted papers of 4000-5000 words (15-20 pages) will be due Dec 1, 2011 and should conform to MLA style
Please send submissions directly to:Petra Buskens: petra@ppmdtherapy.com
Follow up with 4 additional organizations added to the list.....
Dear MIRCI Members and Friends,
The Demeter Press edited collection on the 21st century motherhood movement will be going to print in mid February (the book features more than 70 motherhood organizations).
Due to last minute cancellations we are seeking writers for the following organizations:
Canadian Native Women's Association
Mothers and More
Save the Mothers Program
Brain Child magazine (the contributor can work from and quote from a conference paper on the organization)
Mothers in Charge
Moms on the Move
Film "Every Mother's Son" and the group of activist mothers the film is based on
Black Moms Club
Choice Moms
Playground Revolution
Overview of Mothers in/for Environmental Activism over the last 20 years (15 page chapter)
Chapters are to be 5-15 pages in length and provide an overview of history, philosophy, mandate, challenges activities, relation to larger motherhood movement of organization (Andrea can provide full details if interested).
Chapters are due no later than the end of March 2011. Contributors will receive 2 complimentary issues of the published book.
*Please contact Andrea immediately if interested (please include a short bio of self)
Thanks and best for the new year.
Dr. Andrea O'Reilly
Demeter Press
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI)
140 Holland St. West, PO Box 13022
Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5
http://www.demeterpress.org
info@demeterpress.org
http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org
info@motherhoodinitiative.org
My seven-year-old asks if he can invite Max over for an after-school playdate. The two have been good friends since preschool so my answer is usually an easy "yes," but this time, I encourage Geoffrey to think about another friend. He and Cole have been friends for several years too, but it's been a while since they've played together outside the second-grade classroom.
"It's ok, Mom," he told me. "I'm just trying to even things out from preschool. Remember? That's when Cole came over every week."
I smile at his logic, then marvel at the thought behind it.
I don't believe friendship involves a score card--and neither do my second-grade mom friends--but I'm surprised Geoffrey looked at the situation from another boy's perspective.
Gwen Dewar, biological anthropologist and founder of ParentingScience.com, lists "empathy" as one of five skills parents can foster in their children that will help them make friends. (The other four skills parents can foster? Conversational skills, emotional self-control, willingness to compromise and offer help, willingness to take turns and follow rules.)
Journal Entry: Write about a time you watched your child "walk in another's shoes." Describe the situation, then speculate about what prompted your child to respond as he or she did. Or, if you talked about it afterwards: what reasoning did your child give for his or her response?
The Pen Parentis
Literary Salon
Tuesday, January 11
Ring in the New Year with
inspiring and provocative authors!
Patricia Henley
Is a poet, parent, and novelist. Her novel, Hummingbird House was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has taught for 23 years in the MFA Program at Purdue University.
Thaisa Frank
Is a parent and two-time Pen Award Winner and Pushcart nominee. Her acclaimed debut novel, HEIDEGGER'S GLASSES, explores the fluid boundaries between the life of the imagination and the facts of recorded history.
with special guest:
Nance Van Winckel
Award-winning poet and parent. Recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowships, and a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares.
Join the conversation...
Celebrate contemporary literature and cutting-edge parenting with like-minded readers and writers.
DATE: Tuesday, January 11
TIME: 6:30-8:30
LOCATION: The Libertine Library, upstairs at Gild Hall,
15 Gold Street
CALL FOR PAPERS
Demeter Press seeks submissions for an edited collection on
MUSLIM MOTHERING:
Local and Global Histories, Theories, and Practices
Editor: Dana Olwan Publication Date: 2012
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: MAY 1, 2011!
The concept of Muslim mothering elicits a wide range of assumptions about the roles Islam plays in shaping experiences of mothering and motherhood. While Muslim women are often subjects of scrutiny and analysis, Muslim mothering evokes scant theoretical attention and concern. This collection will attempt to problematize the concept of Muslim mothering while contributing to an understanding of the diverse ideas, practices, and strategies employed by Muslim mothers across the world from a range of historical, theoretical, and political perspectives. It aims to examine the challenges of Muslim mothering while remaining attuned to the particular difficulties and complexities of practicing Islam today in a variety of national, transnational, and international contexts. We seek works that can address multiple, varied, and even contradictory images, symbols, and representations of Muslim mothers and Muslim mothering. In considering the importance of understanding how religious practices shape or inflect mothering and the institution of motherhood, the collection will be guided by the following question: How do Muslim mothers mother?
The editor of this collection seeks article length contributions from across the humanities and social sciences on the following topics: Muslim mothers or mothers in Islam; intersectional approaches to Muslim mothering and Muslim mothering practices; race, class, sexuality, and religion in Muslim mothering; constructions of Muslim mothering in the Quran and the Hadith; rights of Muslim mothers; representations of Muslim mothers; Motherhood in Islam; Muslim mothers and pregnancy, birth, motherhood, and adoption; gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/heterosexual Muslim mothering; Muslim mothering and (dis)ability; single Muslim mothering; Muslim mothering and Islamophobia; mothering in Muslim majority and minority states; Muslim mothering in times of war, occupation, conflict, and/or natural disaster; Muslim mothering and migration; national, international, and/or transnational Muslim mothering; Muslim mothering and reproductive technologies; bilingual, multilingual and/or multicultural Muslim mothering; Muslim mothering and/as resistance; convert Muslim mothering; non-Muslim mothers of Muslim children; Muslim Milk mothers; feminist Muslim mothering; anti-capitalist Muslim mothering.
Papers that examine Muslim mothering from multidisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome.
Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts should be 500 words. Please also include a brief biography
(with citizenship information).
Please send abstracts or inquiries to olwand@queensu.ca in word document file with "Muslim Mothering" in title of e-mail message.
Deadline for Abstracts is May 1st, 2011
Accepted papers of 4000-5000 words (15-18 pages) will be due December 1st, 2011 and should conform to MLA citation format.
Demeter Press
140 Holland St. West, PO 13022
Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5
http://www.demeterpress.org info@demeterpress.org
Lindsay Blanche started grantsforsinglemothers.org because she wanted to share information she's acquired the past 13 years. This single mom from Central Texas says it shouldn't be hard to find help when you need it, so she offers resources for financial aid, scholarships, food and housing programs, and parenting advice.
Want to read more about single parenting? Check out Single Mom Seeking, a column written in 2006 by Rachel Sarah, one of Literary Mama's founding editors. You can read more about her and her book at her website.