Amster-Burton proceeds from a place of yes. He believes that children's food, and infant food too, should not be deliberately bland. We shouldn't fear giving them (added) salt or sugar, or sushi, or spice -- or anything else. For him, "the First Rule of Baby Food is that there's no such thing as baby food." This means sharing your meals with your children from the beginning, and he has lots of great suggestions about how to do this, ranging from smashed apricots to baby-chicken-and-mushrooms to enchiladas. Of all our human experiences, Amster-Burton writes, food is the thing we get to "enjoy three times a day, plus snacks!" And so he sets out to make the most of his food life with his daughter. He eats, cooks and shops with Iris, who turns out to be more like other kids than not: she's adventurous, then picky, then a little of both. Father and daughter eat a lot of pizza, and bacon, and nutella snacks. But they also range more widely, and his practical discussions of a variety of stews, sushi, Korean, Chinese, and Thai dishes is liberating for anyone stuck in Western food traditions. The recipes for Pad Thai, Bibimap, and Ants on a Tree look terrific.
What's most different about this family is not so much what Iris will or won't eat as her father's attitude. Rule number two is: "When I put down the food in front of my child, my job is done." There are no arguments, no food fights, and no bargaining. Iris eats what she eats when she is ready. This approach reminds us that learning to eat is a long term goal. Amster-Burton can afford to take his culinary failures in stride.
While the energy of the book is infectious, Amster-Burton's tone can plummet from witty to flip very quickly, and some of the anecdotes become cloying digressions. Given the choice, he defers to the joke, which can frustrate readers looking for more analysis. But he's upfront about this: "I'm no Michael Pollan." More problematic may be the way he takes for granted the range, availability, and affordability of ingredients. There's a kind of culinary hipster sensibility to his approach that can be offputting for readers who haven't made food their life's work. To Amster-Burton's credit, however, he fully acknowledges these prejudices. What he fails to acknowledge, however, is that not all parents have his expertise, skill, or time. It's one thing to cook for a single child, but add another child, a full-time job, homework, an after school activity or two, and cooking and serving family meals becomes a lot more challenging.
Still, Hungry Monkey can be genuinely funny. Think of this book as Anthony Bourdain for the Bugaboo set: less a how-to or primer than a call to action. In the end, it's the spirit of the book that matters most. The very best take away -- aside from a bunch of good recipes -- is a sense of adventure: food should be fun. For Amster-Burton, feeding a young child is an adventure into newness, an opportunity to forge a relationship to the world and to each other, and an endless series of failures and possibilities. We should all have his spirited, catholic approach. And, probably, a lot more bacon.
Other Mothers/Other Mothering
Demeter Press seeks abstracts by October 12.
Other mothers and other mothering roles may be found throughout history and across diverse cultures. Other mothers may be the paradigmatic first responders, the first-teachers of informal and formal learnings, or first care-givers for the formative triage years of children and youth. Other mothering denotes the continuity and contemporary practices of shared, communal, or assumed mothering responsibilities that are empowering and inclusive of social transformation. Despite the prevalence of this practice and increasing scholarship about other mothering, an edited collection on this important and central cultural paradigm does not yet exist. The aim of the present collection is to investigate the history, possibilities, differences, continuities, transformations, or advancements of other mothering, paying particular attention to liberating potentials of destabilizing patriarchal representations of motherhood and family structures.
Click here for more information.
Submission guidelines:
- Abstracts should be 250 words. Please include a CV.
- Deadline for abstracts: October 12, 2011.
- Accepted papers of 4000-5000 words (15-18 pages) will be due on April 2, 2012 and must conform to MLA style format.
Please send submissions directly to: othermothers2011(at)gmail(dot)com.
The Literary Reflections Department seeks first-person essays with an intellectual as well as personal focus.
Where is the intersection of reading and motherhood? How does the creative process impact your motherhood? What imprint does living and working as a mother-writer leave on you and your family?
Add your story to the Literary Mama collection. Please send submissions of 750-5000 words to lmreflections(at)literarymama(dot)com in the text of an email (please do not send attachments) along with a brief cover letter. Be sure to include the word "Submission" in the subject line. We respond in 4-6 weeks. Please see our Submissions page for more details.
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.
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When my kids were young, the parade was the highpoint of their Fourth of July celebration -- the candy, the horses, the Shriners and their go-karts, and of course, the fire trucks. After the parade, and dressed in as much red, white, and blue as they could find, they marched around the front yard, waving miniature flags and singing "Yankee Doodle" and "God Bless America" to the best of their ability. But it was the marches of John Phillip Sousa keeping the beat to the bursts of the evening's fireworks that transformed their sugar-induced euphoria into a patriotic experience.
"I can feel the beat in my heart and all the way down to my stomach," I remember my four-year-old yelling to me over the ka-booms. "It's hot, and it feels like it's going to jump out of me!"
Sousa marches have the same effect on me, so, today, I post a brief biography of "The March King" and encourage you to tap your foot to the beat.
John Phillip Sousa grew up around military band music. Beginning at the age of six, he studied voice, violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, trombone, and alto horn. His father played trombone in the United States Marine Band and enlisted him in the Marines at age 13 as an apprentice after he attempted to run away to join a circus band.
Sousa conducted the US Marine Band, also known as "The President's Own," from 1880-1892 and under four presidents (Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Arthur, and Harrison). From 1900-1910, he led The Sousa Band, a civilian concert band, on three European tours and one world tour. After World War I, he lobbied for music education and composers' rights.
All together, he wrote 136 marches, including Semper Fidelis, the Official March of the United States Marine Corps, and The Stars and Stripes Forever, the Official March of the United States. Listen to more John Phillip Sousa marches, performed by the United States Marine Band, here.
Journal Entry: What makes patriotism "hot" for you and your family? What makes your heart beat faster; what brings your hand to your heart and tears to your eyes?
LM contributor Susannah Pabot is one of the organizers of a public art exhibit that draws attention to preeclampsia and honors the thousands of babies lost each year to this condition. Susannah created poetic messages that are based on her own story and the stories of 23 families throughout the United States and displays them inside empty cradles on baby blankets.
Field of Cradles will be exhibited in conjunction with a Promise Walk for Preeclampsia on July 24, 2011 on Castle Island, South Boston, MA.
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.
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Last January, "trend" (verb, to exhibit a burst of online buzz) was voted Most Likely to Succeed by the American Dialect Society. Previous winners--which sounded odd five and 10 years ago and are now part of our everyday lexicon---include: "notebook PC" (1990), "rollerblade" (1991), "snail mail" (1992), "like" with a form of the verb be to indicate speech or though (1993), "World Wide Web," "WWW," ´"the Web" (1995), "drive-by" (1996), "DVD" (1997), "e-" (1998), "dot-com" (1999).
This list got me thinking about the weird words that float around my home. We call them "Converse-isms." We use these made-up words nearly every day, but they make no sense when used in conversations outside the family. All three of our kids had several enlightening conversations with friends and teachers before they fully understood when, and with whom, these words could be used.
Take, for example, the phrase, "turning on the oven." Nothing special, right? But when my mom announces this detail while preparing a meal--and the three or four meals that follow during a weekend visit--it doesn't take long for the phrase to morph into "setting the table," "turning on the TV," and "washing dishes" for the rest us.
The laughter these words and phrases have generated has played an important role in strengthening our family and so, for that reason alone, I'll continue to note our weird words and phrases.
And who knows? I see Merriam-Webster has an Open Dictionary with several lists of user-submitted words. Maybe, some day, one of our Converse-isms will end up there. I just hope they never make the list of words that should be banished, which was also released last January. "Viral" and "epic" top that list of nominations from the general public.
Here are some of our Converse-isms and their definitions:
Journal Entry: What made-up words dominate your family conversations? Write a dictionary definition for each one. Then, re-create a scene and conversation in which it was used.
When Michael Messner was a boy growing up in Northern California, annual hunting trips with his father and grandfather offered a ritual of connection and sport infused with symbol and meaning. While hunting, men like his father and grandfather were more than regular guys to Messner; they were larger than life, battle-ready, full of ritual and bravery. One year, when he was 21, Messner chose to put down a hunting rifle for the last time, a story told in King of the Wild Suburb: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Guns.
Messner, a smart sociologist with a keen eye for detail and nuance, has written a subtle and moving book about what it meant to put down that rifle, and what it meant for his own life and relationship with his sons to take a different turn than that of his father and grandfather. Where the elder Messners were military men with a taste for the hunt, Michael is a reluctant warrior trying to find new definitions of manhood and masculinity. In one of the book's most moving scenes, fifteen year hold Messner actually does kill his first buck, only to feel profound shame and guilt over the deed. As Messner writes:
For Gramps and Dad, I believe this was a proud coming-of-age moment that connected them to me and to each other. For me, it was that too, but also something other... What my fantasy had not anticipated was the well of empathy that bubbled up within me, the sense of foul play that I felt in having shot this buck as he blindly pursued a mate, and my visceral disgust with the bloody mess of it all.
From this moment on, Messner and the reader know that hunting will never be a permanent part of his legacy as it was for his father and grandfather. What makes this book so moving and thoughtful are the connections between fathers and sons that Messner both ponders and experiences even as he defines a new culture of masculinity for himself and his own sons. Highly recommended.
Congrats to these LM staffers!
Deesha Philyaw, former LM Columnist: "I'm excited to announce that my ex-husband, Michael Thomas, and I are co-authoring the book Co-Parenting 101: Advice from a Formerly Married Couple on Parenting Across Two Households. It'll be published by New Harbinger Publications in 2013. When Mike and I separated, and later divorced, people who knew us and our kids said we were the "poster children for divorce." Of course, that's not anything anyone aspires to, but we do believe that there are things we and other parents can do to help our children cope with (and not exacerbate) the emotional trauma they experience in the wake of a parental break-up. Creating a civil, respectful, parenting partnership goes a long way in enabling kids to not only survive but to thrive. With our site, CoParenting101.org, and now the book, we want to encourage and support other parents who are struggling and striving to parent across two households."
Kristina Riggle, Fiction Editor: "I've received several new reviews of Things We Didn't Say, which comes out June 28:"
"She brings us a sympathetic, flawed heroine who finds the strength to speak up for herself and those she's come to care about. An emotionally stirring piece that will resonate long after the last page is read." - RT Top Pick"The historic home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where most of the book is set, takes on the presence of another character, while the constrained time period adds to the intimate feel of this absorbing novel about a blended family." - Booklist
"An involving portrayal of the obstacles confronting today's families." - Publishers Weekly
40 Weeks at 40
Moms Talk about Pregnancy and Childbirth at Age 40 and Older
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement is seeking submissions for a planned collection of firsthand, nonfiction narratives about the personal experience of pregnancy, up to and including childbirth, among mothers age 40 and older. A search for a publisher is under way and will not be limited to academic presses, since this collection is meant to serve scholars as well as a wide popular audience.
Writers are encouraged to reflect on emotional health, physiology, community, home and work life, and family relationships. In addition, writers should consider telling stories related to age, gender, cultural perceptions, and surprises that led to learning and personal growth.
Essay topics may include but are not limited to:
Gender Studies perspectives from women pregnant at/after 40
Medical perspectives from doctors, nurses, midwives, technicians, and doulas pregnant at/after 40
Preparation for pregnancy and childbirth after 40
Nutrition while pregnant at/after 40
Yoga and pregnancy (including, e.g., meditation, breathing exercises)
Athletes and physical conditioning (safe sports, regular exercise, even Kegeling, etc.)
Natural childbirth in a clinic or at home (e.g., waterbirthing) at/after 40
Fertility issues (IVF, etc.)
Surprise pregnancies over 40
Lesbian and heterosexual women (gender) and pregnancy at/after 40
Perceptions based on race and ethnicity when a pregnant woman is 40 and older
Perceptions based on class when a pregnant woman is 40 and older
Single motherhood at/after 40
Parenting with a partner who is also at/after 40
Drugs and other interventions during childbirth
Tests (Down syndrome, blood tests, sonograms)
Cesareans and childbirth after cesareans, whether scheduled C-sections or VBAC
Multiple births
Having an "only" child at/after 40
Adding another child to a family at/after 40
Sex and pregnancy/postpartum
Risk of postpartum depression
Respect and disrespect to older pregnant women and older moms
Delivery room politics
"Having it all" and career trajectory
Stay-at-home motherhood, including leaving a career due to parenthood
Legal/political issues and workplace discrimination
Awareness of children's lives that we didn't have at age 20 or 30-choices
Women who had abortions earlier in life and chose to get pregnant again
Women who had to terminate pregnancies at/after 40
Putting off having children due to desire for income, for stability, for right partner
Please send submissions (approx. 1500 words) and queries to ivyfern (at)msn(dot)com or to opdebena(at)plu(dot)edu with "40 MOMS" in subject header. Include complete contact information.
Hard copies may be directed to:
Nathalie op de Beeck, Associate Professor
Department of English
Pacific Lutheran University
227K Hauge Admin. Bldg.
Tacoma, WA 98447-0001
Deadline: July 15, 2011
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.
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Boating = family time. That's the sales pitch my husband used when he started talking about buying a boat.
He knew I was hesitant--I'm not a water person--so he built his case slowly. First, he recounted childhood weekends spent water skiing, tubing, and fishing with his parents and sisters. He encouraged our kids to ask Grandpa about the time he drove the boat too close to shore and to tease their aunts about the time they skied in algae bloom. (They don't recommend the green, slimy water.)
Then one Father's Day, he suggested we head to the lake and rent a boat "just to see if the kids like it." He's taken the kids to the swimming pool since they were a year old, so it was no surprise that, at ages 8, 10, and 12, they declared that particular Sunday the best day of their lives.
By the following Father's Day, we not only owned an 18 ½-foot Rinker but also a trailer to haul it, a slip and a lift at the marina to store it, a 72-inch inner tube and two pairs of water skis (plus towropes) to play with, and eight life jackets as mandated by the Department of Natural Resources.
It's probably the best investment we've ever made. Not only because of the hours spent together relaxing in the sunshine but because of the increasing confidence each of our kids has exhibited over the years.
Every summer, we've celebrate a variety of successes. These have included tubing alone for one, getting up on skis for another, and getting up after removing the ties between the two skis for the third. Another year, it was tubing or skiing outside the wake for one, slalom skiing for another, and driving the boat for the third. I'm not sure what's in store for this summer, but they're starting to talk about a bigger boat ...
Journal Entry: Name an item you were reluctant to purchase for your family but since doing so, are glad you did. Describe a time your family used this item.
There's still space available if you want to attend Summer Fishtrap 2011.
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Summer Fishtrap Workshops and Gathering at Wallowa Lake, nestled at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains in Eastern Oregon, is coming up soon! From July 10-17, 2011, writers are invited for a week of creative writing workshops and a weekend of presentations, readings and conversation on questions of migration and passages, both political and personal.
Many of the 5 day creative writing workshops are already full, but there are still a few spaces left these workshops:
- Rosanne Parry - writing coming of age stories for young adults
- Wayne Harrison - the subtler uses of dialog to reveal character
- Debra Earling - creating stories of legend, myth and magic
- Henry Hughes - writing poems that will change your life
- Mandy Smoker - writing your personal story of change
- Joanne Mulcahy - the challenges of writing about the lives and landscapes of others
The Gathering begins on Thursday night July 14th and features Pico Iyer, famous for his writings on travel, globalism, migration and crossing cultures. Iyer will be joined by artist and healer Eva Castellanoz, journalist David Laskin, and social activist Pramila Jayapal.
Participants may enroll in the five-day writing workshops, just the Gathering, or both. For more information, click here.
Check out this writing opportunity: LitUp is seeking humorous essays for their August show in San Francisco.
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LitUp Writers seeks humorous first-person essays about city life. We want to hear your stories about the city -- this city, that city, ANY city. It can be a city you've lived in, or one you only visited. A city you love, or a city you hate. So long as you have a really great story to tell about it, it's all good. Ideally, we seek pieces that are both funny and personal; stories that reveal something about the author through a humorous lens.
Selected stories will be read, by the authors, before a live audience on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at Space Gallery in San Francisco. A mandatory rehearsal will be held on Sunday, July 31, 2011.
Please send all submissions, via e-mail, to litupwriters [at] gmail.com. Submissions must be 1,200 words or less. One submission per person, please.
The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, June 21, 2011.
Literary Mama wants to know what you're thinking!
We're looking for short, focused op-ed pieces (a tight 500 to 900 words):
* Opinionated pieces with a strong focus and argument
* Timely essays about issues important to mothers and/or writers
* A new perspective on a popular topic
* Or an introduction to an issue that hasn't yet caught the public eye.
We're not looking for:
* Topics so obscure that most of the discussion is taken up with giving the reader background
* Sprawling topics impossible to keep to our tight word count
* Arguments familiar and/or uninspiring.
Please send queries and submissions to lmoped (at) literarymama (dot) com in the text of an email. Include the word "Submission" in the subject line of your email, and allow 2 weeks for a response.