Literary Mama Blog

Catalyst Book Press

From Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer:

Catalyst Book Press seeks literary essays telling personal stories for two anthologies, one focusing on birth parents, and the other on the subject of miscarriage. The submission deadline for both books is August 15, 2009, and payment in each case will be $50 plus one copy of the book. For more information, visit http://www.catalystbookpress.com/Guidelines.html

CALL FOR PAPERS

Submission Deadline: July 13, 2009
PERINATAL
A Symposium on Birth Practices and Reproductive Rights
Wednesday 7th October 2009 (tentative) at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia Forty years ago, the feminist movement advocated for reproductive rights. Over the years, childbirth was dropped from the agenda. Why? What has this meant for women? How are women organizing for change?

We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, artists, mothers and others who work or research in this area. Comparative and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. Feminist inquiries are explicitly sought, although all submissions will be considered. We encourage a variety of types of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines, workshops, creative submissions, performances, storytelling, visual arts, and other alternative formats.

This symposium is interdisciplinary. Possible topics include:
• Cultural myths and expectations around birth (written, verbal, or visual culture)
• Rethinking maternal-fetal conflict
• The psychological impact of contemporary birth practices
• Developments in midwifery, homebirth, and unassisted birth
• The symbolic significance of birth practices as socialization
• The evolution of contemporary birth practices and taboos
• Maternal resistance to birth practices
• The feminist movement and birth

If you are interested in being a presenter, please send a 250-500 word abstract and a 50 word bio by July 13, 2009 to: Jessica Clements (jmooreq@gmu.edu).
Late abstracts will be considered and accepted if possible.
Please send the abstract as an attachment, not in the body of an email, in either PDF or Word DOC format. Include Title, Abstract (250-500 words), Name, Institutional Affiliation, Address, Phone, Email Address, Brief Bio (50 words).

The Mom Egg

We are currently seeking submissions for a special online issue of The Mom Egg, a literary journal, to be released in Fall 2009. Deadline for poetry, fiction, creative prose and art for this issue is July 31, 2009. We are also accepting submissions of other material, such as reviews and interviews. Submission guidelines may be found on the website, <www.themomegg.com> .

The Mom Egg publishes work by mothers about everything, and by everyone about mothers and motherhood.

6-Week Writing Intensive & Publication in Anthology

August 1, 2009 - September 12, 2009

Write your truth. Tell your stories. Make a commitment to yourself. Wherever you’ve roamed, whatever you’ve survived, however you live—it’s all fodder for your work. Your unique experiences are vital to creating and critiquing. This multi-genre workshop will serve as a tool for self-discovery and story excavation under the guidance of two professional writers in a focused, supportive environment.

Generate dynamic new material through exercises and peer review; revive dormant work using elements of craft, community and critique. By the end of the course, writers should be comfortable sharing their writing and offering constructive criticism. Participants are guaranteed one polished piece ready-for-publication, with rough drafts for many more. This polished piece is guaranteed publication in one of our upcoming anthologies. In our workshops you will not only learn everything you need to know to write a story ready for publication, you will learn how to submit a story, what editors look for, and you will actually be published. Publication is the first step to becoming a professional author. We want to give you this chance!

This is a multi-genre workshop for anyone serious about turning life stories into publishable works. Our stories span generations, theme, structure and region. Thanks to the Internet, Roaming Writers offers access to professionals and dialogue with a worldwide writing community.

Cara Bruce brings fiction, publishing and editing expertise to the class, while Shawna Kenney offers nonfiction and memoir advice. Both have nurtured many writers on their way to publication and have published previous anthologies.

Limited enrollment for maximum attention to your work. Waiting list maintained for next workshop. Space may be reserved by sending a writing sample or letter-of-intent to the email address below. All inquiries should be directed to:

roamingwriters@gmail.com

Total Fee: $250, payable by check, money order, or Paypal

A partial deposit is required. Once enrolled, you will receive a password and link to the online Google Groups classroom, with instructions for uploading documents and initial introductions.

We look forward to reading your work!

6-Week Writing Intensive & Publication in Anthology

August 1, 2009 - September 12, 2009

Write your truth. Tell your stories. Make a commitment to yourself. Wherever you’ve roamed, whatever you’ve survived, however you live—it’s all fodder for your work. Your unique experiences are vital to creating and critiquing. This multi-genre workshop will serve as a tool for self-discovery and story excavation under the guidance of two professional writers in a focused, supportive environment.

Generate dynamic new material through exercises and peer review; revive dormant work using elements of craft, community and critique. By the end of the course, writers should be comfortable sharing their writing and offering constructive criticism. Participants are guaranteed one polished piece ready-for-publication, with rough drafts for many more. This polished piece is guaranteed publication in one of our upcoming anthologies. In our workshops you will not only learn everything you need to know to write a story ready for publication, you will learn how to submit a story, what editors look for, and you will actually be published. Publication is the first step to becoming a professional author. We want to give you this chance!

This is a multi-genre workshop for anyone serious about turning life stories into publishable works. Our stories span generations, theme, structure and region. Thanks to the Internet, Roaming Writers offers access to professionals and dialogue with a worldwide writing community.

Cara Bruce brings fiction, publishing and editing expertise to the class, while Shawna Kenney offers nonfiction and memoir advice. Both have nurtured many writers on their way to publication and have published previous anthologies.

Limited enrollment for maximum attention to your work. Waiting list maintained for next workshop. Space may be reserved by sending a writing sample or letter-of-intent to the email address below. All inquiries should be directed to:

roamingwriters@gmail.com

Total Fee: $250, payable by check, money order, or Paypal

A partial deposit is required. Once enrolled, you will receive a password and link to the online Google Groups classroom, with instructions for uploading documents and initial introductions.

We look forward to reading your work!

6-Week Writing Intensive & Publication in Anthology

August 1, 2009 - September 12, 2009

Write your truth. Tell your stories. Make a commitment to yourself. Wherever you’ve roamed, whatever you’ve survived, however you live—it’s all fodder for your work. Your unique experiences are vital to creating and critiquing. This multi-genre workshop will serve as a tool for self-discovery and story excavation under the guidance of two professional writers in a focused, supportive environment.

Generate dynamic new material through exercises and peer review; revive dormant work using elements of craft, community and critique. By the end of the course, writers should be comfortable sharing their writing and offering constructive criticism. Participants are guaranteed one polished piece ready-for-publication, with rough drafts for many more. This polished piece is guaranteed publication in one of our upcoming anthologies. In our workshops you will not only learn everything you need to know to write a story ready for publication, you will learn how to submit a story, what editors look for, and you will actually be published. Publication is the first step to becoming a professional author. We want to give you this chance!

This is a multi-genre workshop for anyone serious about turning life stories into publishable works. Our stories span generations, theme, structure and region. Thanks to the Internet, Roaming Writers offers access to professionals and dialogue with a worldwide writing community.

Cara Bruce brings fiction, publishing and editing expertise to the class, while Shawna Kenney offers nonfiction and memoir advice. Both have nurtured many writers on their way to publication and have published previous anthologies.

Limited enrollment for maximum attention to your work. Waiting list maintained for next workshop. Space may be reserved by sending a writing sample or letter-of-intent to the email address below. All inquiries should be directed to:

roamingwriters@gmail.com

Total Fee: $250, payable by check, money order, or Paypal

A partial deposit is required. Once enrolled, you will receive a password and link to the online Google Groups classroom, with instructions for uploading documents and initial introductions.

We look forward to reading your work!

Moms in the Fast Lane

We are looking for personal stories 1500 to 3000 words in length (approximately 6-12 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins) that explore the challenges women face while raising kids and working a job, or raising kids and staying at home. We also encourage career women who have made the decision not to have children, or who are contemplating having children,to submit their stories.

Our readers will include young college graduates contemplating motherhood; women overwhelmed by the demands of career and family life; stay at home moms and moms trying to “on ramp” back into a career; husbands and fathers trying to better understand the plight of the women in their lives; and anyone wondering how mothers are faring in the professional world today. The success of this book will lie in the readability of the stories. These are NOT scholarly essays, and they do not need to have a “moral” to the story, or a solution to the problem. They are personal memoirs from real women illuminating the triumphs and failures of raising children while maintaining a career, or not. They should be dramatic, funny, emotional, passionate. Other potential issues to explore: equal parenting or not, successful relationships or not, fidelity or not; feeling good about work or not. Your candor, humor and passion are most important. Funny and outrageous anecdotes (e.g. struggling to keep down morning sickness while presenting to a board room of men) are encouraged!

Manuscripts and queries should be typewritten and double-spaced. Please send in in Word or RTF format. Please provide a 3 sentence description of yourself, contact info, including an email address, and day and evening phone numbers. If possible, send writing clips of other work you have published.

** If you do plan to contribute, we would appreciate you sending a short, one-paragraph abstract/proposal about your subject matter as soon as possible. We will do our best to review and provide feedback.

Deadline for submission is July 15, 2009.

If we decide to include your story in the collection, we will contact you directly to discuss the best way to handle the material/assignment. Due to the large volume of queries we have received, we may not be able to include every story received. We will try to notify you within 30 days of receiving your manuscript to let you know whether it will be included in the collection.

All manuscripts and queries should be e-mailed to:
sam@walravens.com
Subject: submission: “Moms in the Fast Lane”
Samantha Parent Walravens
Writer, Freelance Journalist and Mother of Four
sam@walravens.com

Museum Of Motherhood

Here is a way to do something FREE, WONDERFUL and LASTING for MOTHERS DAY.

Be part of the founding initiative for the Museum Of Motherhood. Please take a moment to reflect on a mother you've known, your own mother or your experiences as a mother and share them with us at Museum Of Motherhood.

Write your 'Mothering' story here:
http://www.museumofmotherhood.org/ROM.html

Cultural Consequences of Unmotherhood

Scholars in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, Cultural Studies, Economics, English, Gender Studies, History, Medicine, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Women’s Studies, and others are engaged in attempting to understand the construction and consequences of motherhood. A woman’s physiological ability to conceive, carry, and birth children, the assumption that the ability to raise children is a natural physiological trait, the ideological pressures to do so, the unique duties and responsibilities of motherhood, and subsequent rewards and penalties are just a few of the areas of inquiry found in literature.

What is perhaps less common, but equally as important, is scholarly inquiry into what some have called unmotherhood: the inability or choice to forego the conception and birth of children. In what many believe is undoubtedly a pro-natalist culture, the advancement of inquiries into issues surrounding unmotherhood, the illumination of the status of women-without-children, and the analysis of the material, cultural, and psychological consequences in the lives of these women (as individuals and within groups) becomes increasingly principal to women’s studies and feminists scholars of every discipline.

This edited edition invites a variety of scholarly styles, methods, approaches, and foci on the topic. The inclusion of personal narratives integrated with or standing apart from scholarly work is highly encouraged as well. Scholars of every discipline are encouraged to submit abstracts, by May 30, 2009, for inclusion in a volume that may include, among others:

1.The emotional consequences of unmotherhood.
2.The cultural consequences of unmotherhood.
3.The re lative economic status of women without children as a group.
4.The burgeoning fertility industry in developed nations.
5.The role of media representation of motherhood/unmotherhood in contemporary natalism.
6.How legislative efforts affect/are affected by natalism.
7.The ways in which class intersects with motherhood and unmotherhood.
8.The ways in which sexuality intersects with motherhood and unmotherhood.
9.The impact of cultural tradition and assumptions on decisions concerning motherhood/unmotherhood.
10.The rhetoric of fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood in literature.
11.The medical/physical consequences of motherhood/unmotherhood.

Please send a CV and abstract of no more than 500 words, via ground post or email to:
Nicole Herrera
Department of English
Olin Hall
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-1906
njb9@uakron.edu

Memoir Journal

MEMOIR (AND) Call for Submissions

The reading period for Spring+Summer 2010 (Issue 6) is upon us! Accepting traditional and experimental prose, poetry, graphic memoir, narrative photography, lies, and more from 5/1/09 through 8/15/09.

Four prizes up to $500 available for prose, poetry and graphic memoirs. All submissions eligible for contest entry.

For guidelines, contest info and online submissions, visit www.memoirjournal.com.

Birth Story

SUBMIT YOUR BIRTH STORY FOR AN UPCOMING ANTHOLOGY!

Looking for any and all stories; home births, hospital births, c-section, vaginal deliveries, miscarriages.

The aim of this project is to create a dialogue for women and their partners surrounding birth.

Please submit a photo along with your story (optional). Include the approximate word count, along with your name, phone # and email address.

Submission deadline July 31st, 2009.

Email submissions/ questions to:

submityourbirthstory@gmail.com

East Bay Monthly

Call for Submissions - East Bay Monthly, July 2009

Dear Writers,

We're planning another fabulous summer essay issue of The East Bay Monthly—and we'd love to consider publishing your work. We're looking for original, vivid, carefully crafted personal essays using "31 Flavors" as a theme or jumping off point. Please give it a whirl, and see where your creative mind takes you. (Note: ice cream references are not mandatory.)

Nitty Gritty Details

1. Maximum length: 900 words.

2. Essays are due by May 14, 2009, in order to be considered for the July 2009 "31 Flavors" summer essay issue.

3. To submit, please paste your essay into an email entitled Summer Essay Submission to editorial@themonthly.com and attach it as a Word document.

Questions, comments, brilliant final drafts...send them our way! We can't wait to see what you come up with.

Sarah Weld and Autumn Stephens

Co-Editors, East Bay Monthly

The Choosing America Project

The Choosing America Project is looking for true short stories that express the very essence of being an immigrant in America; dramatic accounts that transform the word "immigrant" to something moving and personal. For more details please go to Choosing America.

Our concept is to disseminate this information to as many immigrants as possible in search of the best material. Please help us convey this information to writers, editors, students, professors, educators, seniors, colleagues and friends, community leaders and organizers as well as to community groups and organizations and to anyone who you believe can contribute to this project.

motherhood anthology

I'm looking to put together an anthology of strong, woman writers who envision the future of motherhood as something all together different from what we see today.

So what's the future to you?
Universal healthcare? Free childcare for all mothers, regardless of race, income, or age? Mother compounds where woman live and raise kids together?

Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it. Right now I have several publishers interested, but I am seeking compelling essays to put together. Essay length between 500-2500 words.

Also looking for quotes, or short "snippets" which can be 200 words, and original artwork.

Essays, prose, fiction...I'm open to anything.

Email me at: alphabeticals@gmail.com
Please use subject line: motherhood 2.0

www.mommyweirdest.com

Hit and Run Magazine

Publishing the raw materials of fiction, poetry and other creative work: index cards; napkin notes; notebook entries; etc. See the right-side panel of hit and run magazine.

Poems About Fatherhood

Literary Mama is seeking poems about fatherhood, and we welcome male voices for our June Father's Day issue. We seek writing that is about fathers from the child's perspectives; about the relationships between fathers and mothers and husbands and wives; about husbands as fathers; and by self-defined fathers about fathering and mothering (including lesbian or transexual parents who identify as fathers). As always, we seek poems that are incisive, interesting, and emotionally resonant. Please submit before May 1st to poetry editor Sharon Kraus at lmpoetry@literarymama.com

Dads in Academia

The editors of Dads in Academia: Male Voices In and Out of the Ivory Tower invite contributions for an interdisciplinary collection of creative nonfiction essays on the
rewards and challenges of being both a father and an academic. Much
recent discussion about the juxtaposition of parenthood and the
academy has focused on the difficulties that female professors face
when they choose to become mothers. Books like Mama, PhD, edited by Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans, depict the oftentimes bleak prospects of merging the two endeavors. This collection welcomes the masculine voice into this lively and provocative dialogue. Further, Dads in Academia creates a space for male professors to describe their own experiences of balancing the demands and desires of two worlds that have changed notably throughout the past few decades: fatherhood and academia.

We encourage contributors to consider the changing cultural
perceptions, representations, and expectations associated with
fatherhood, and to explore the impact of such changes on their
identities as teachers and scholars. Increasingly, fathers are taking on a more intense role with regard to child-rearing than ever before.

How do today’s male academics view their participation in the
parenting process? How is this changing the nature of the job? Has
the evolving role of the father in contemporary society changed the
job itself?

We also welcome essays that focus on how the evolution of fatherhood
is changing the face of academia. Have we seen any concrete changes
on college campuses to encourage the “professor as interactive father” schemata? What is the climate like for male professors who “want it all”? Are they able to balance fatherhood and the road to tenure? What gives?

Editors:
Mary Ruth Marotte, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of Graduate Studies in English at the University of Central Arkansas, where she specializes in women’s studies and critical theory. Her book, Captive Bodies: American Women Writers Redefine Pregnancy and Childbirth, was released by Demeter Press in October 2008. She lives in Conway, AR with her husband and three children.

Paige Martin Reynolds, Ph.D. is an Assistant
Professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas. Her
specializations include Shakespeare, British Renaissance Drama,
Performance Studies, and Elizabeth I. She has written articles
published or forthcoming in SEL: Studies in English Literature,
1500-1900, ANQ: American Notes and Queries, and 1650-1850: Ideas,
Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era. She lives in
Little Rock, AR with her husband and daughter.

Deadline: March 1, 2009

Length: 1,500 to 4,000 words.

Format: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please
include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and a short bio on the last page.

Contact: Mary Ruth Marotte at mrmarotte AT hotmail DOT com for more
information

A Cup of Comfort® for Mothers:

Stories that celebrate the women who gave us everything

While it’s true that each of us has “only one mother the wide world over,” there are many different ways to be a mother and many different forms and flavors of mother-child relationships. And in this Cup of Comfort anthology we want to capture it all—with personal stories about a wide range of mothering and mother-child experiences, including those that test your mettle as well as those that enrich your life. The book will include stories written both by mothers and about mothers (by their adult children, spouse, own mother). Any topic and tone goes, as long as it’s meaningful to mothers and suitable for Cup of Comfort. Whether a story is endearing or entertaining, inspiring or insightful, humorous or heartwarming, poignant or empowering, or all of the above, it must be uplifting and authentic. And most should be about living mothers/children. Although a story may be about a deceased mother (or a deceased child, if written by the mother), it should focus on her life, not on her death. Narrative essays preferred. Story length: 1000–2000 words.

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2009
Finalist Notification: June 1, 2009

Seeking writing stories

Kathi Kamen Goldmark is looking for stories from authors of all genres for a book she and her husband Sam Barry are finishing.

It's a non-fiction book based on their monthly column on writing (found at bookpage.com) and Kathi's looking for two things from her fellow writers:

1) A personal story about having your manuscript rejected, and then selling a book.

And/or

2) Your recommendations for the best books to read (or give as gifts) to inspire other writers.

She writes, "These do not have to be long stories—in fact, shorter is better. We'll credit you by name, along with whichever title of yours you ask us to mention. We'd love to have your name in our book, and hope to hear from you. Thanks so much."

Her email is: kkg@well.com

Mothers Creating/Writing Lives: Motherhood Memoirs

UPDATE: EXTENDED DEADLINE APRIL 15, 2009


As memoir continues to expand in popularity, motherhood memoir has become an increasingly prominent and lucrative subgenre for contemporary authors. As Michelle Herman points out in The Middle of Everything: Memoirs of Motherhood, if forced to choose between her daughter and her writing, she would choose her daughter, but this would be a gut-wrenching decision. Instead, her writing life is woven into her mothering life, and she finds that she can write in conditions she would have previously thought impossible. It is clear that writers who are also mothers must write their stories. How do they do it, why are so many readers interested in what they have to say, and what can we learn from them? Women have been writing about motherhood as long as they have been writing, but the contemporary shift to tell-all memoirs has changed the rules of writing about mothering, and perhaps, of mothering itself.

We are seeking proposals for a collection that will interrogate and critique the motherhood memoir. In addition to a new collection entitled Mama Ph.D.: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, there are several very recent motherhood memoirs that demand critical attention, works such as: Adrienne Martini's, Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood; Susan Johnson's, A Better Woman; Ayun Halliday's, The Big Rumpus; and Anne Roiphe's, Living Contradictions: A Memoir of Modern Motherhood. What are these and other writing mothers saying about the experience of mothering today? What, if any, universals are present in motherhood memoirs? What societal critiques and suggestions provide the bedrock for potential revolutionary parenting practices? This collection will strive to bridge the distance between writing mothers who are critics and writing mothers who are authors by privileging academic work that seeks to discuss and contextualize motherhood memoirs beside authors’ own experiences of mothering, academic life, and writing. Autotheoretical works are encouraged, as are works that seek to meaningfully compare contemporary motherhood memoirs with those written in other eras, or works which thematically explore a grouping of memoirs. For example, one might discuss the role of fathers, special needs children, mothering and mental illness, etc. in several volumes, particularly if these topics inform the author’s own experiences. Other possible topics include the range of issues related to choice (the choice of whether/when/how to mother, etc.), mothering and socioeconomic class, mothering and race, mothering at different ages, mothering and prose/poetic form, mothering and sexuality, and other topical themes.

Please send one to two page proposals and a curriculum vitae to Justine Dymond, jdymond@spfldcol.edu , and Nicole Willey, nwilley@kent.edu, by April 15, 2009.

ABC WANTS YOUR MOMMY STORIES --

GO TO INTHEMOTHERHOOD.COM & SHARE

New Network Comedy Series Will Feature Stories Inspired By Viewers’ Life Experiences

From play dates and daycare to stretch marks and potty training, ABC wants to hear about your poignant, hilarious, emotional and even your most banal mommy moments for its new comedy series, “In the Motherhood,” premiering this spring. Based on the popular web series of the same name, the show will feature stories inspired by real life experiences of viewers shared through our website at www.InTheMotherhood.com.

ABC.com’s “In the Motherhood” site offers moms a place to share their first-hand experiences, the ability to rate and comment on others’ experiences, receive text alerts with mommy tips and get info on the show. Additionally, users will soon be able to upload photos and videos of their experiences, play games, grab a widget, or even get more creative by composing their own captions for photos from the show.

InTheMotherhood.com also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the new series with Cheryl Hines, Jessica St. Clair and Megan Mullally, as well as a sneak peek of the actors at a table read for the pilot episode.

About “In the Motherhood”

Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) and Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) come to ABC in the new comedy “In the Motherhood,” which takes a look at the importance of family and friends while trying to juggle motherhood, work and love lives in an overly complicated modern world.

The story focuses on Rosemary (Mullally), Jane (Hines) and Emily (St. Clair), who represent mothers we all know. Rosemary is a free-wheeling mom who plays it fast and loose when it comes to parenting her teenaged son, Luke. Married numerous times, but currently single, Rosemary lives by her own rules. Much to the amazement of the other moms, her nontraditional parenting style has yielded a son much more responsible than she. Rosemary’s best friend, Jane, is a recently divorced working mother of a pre-teen, Annie, and a baby girl, Sophie, who is just trying to keep her career and home afloat. Having just returned to work after giving birth eight months ago, Jane struggles to find a happy balance – lucky for her she has her “manny,” Horatio (Horatio Sanz, “Saturday Night Live”), to help out. Jane’s younger sister, Emily, sees herself as the model stay-at-home-super-mom for her two young children, Esther and Bill. Emily’s home is a work of art, and her kids are polite and sweet—everything has its place in her world. Married to Jason (RonReaco Lee), Emily takes parenting as seriously as any mother could.

“In the Motherhood” stars Cheryl Hines as Jane, Jessica St. Clair as Emily, Horatio Sanz as Horatio, RonReaco Lee as Jason and Megan Mullally as Rosemary.

Jennifer Konner & Alexandra Rushfield (“Undeclared”), Stuart Bloomberg and David Lang are the executive producers of “In the Motherhood,” which is from ABC Studios.

Call for submission of personal accounts from mothers who have survived domestic violence.

Our upcoming anthology, Motherhood and Domestic Violence (working title), will explore the complexities of mothering in a violent home through stories, essays, and poems written by survivors.

Women with children experience domestic violence on two levels ~

Besides the cruelties inflicted upon themselves, mothers suffer the
violence again as they witness the effects on their children.

They endure the torment of being unable to create a safe and loving home for their children and at the same time experience verbal and psychological abuse as their abusive partner convinces them they are a bad mother.

As many women say, "You can't do your job as a mom if you are living in domestic violence. All your energy is taken up with mothering him or just getting through the day."

Possible Topics:

The stories we receive from survivors will in large part dictate the structure of our book. We will focus on the survivor's experience being a mother while living in violence, rather than on the impact of domestic violence on children. We are interested in thoughts, feelings, and recollections of events - whatever the survivor is willing to share about her experience.

Possible topics might include:

Your reactions to your children witnessing your abuse.
Losing or giving up custody of your children.
Making decisions about the abusive relationship based on what you thought was best for your children.
What do you wish you had done differently?
What do you think you did well?

Things to consider:

Writing can be wonderfully therapeutic and a lot of distressing feelings can come up in the process. We recommend that the writers be out of their domestic violence relationship and have successfully moved through the trauma stage. They should have a strong support system.

Guidelines:

Good writing skills are helpful, but not necessary - we will work closely with contributors to polish their writings. Or, if writing your story seems too daunting, send us a tape. Mostly we are looking for the heart and wisdom of our story-tellers.

We prefer submissions to be typed and double-spaced, but if you don't type, please print clearly.

Be sure to include your name, address, phone number and email address.
Remember to notify us at once if you move, change your phone number or
email. (If you wish to remain anonymous, let us know and we won't include your name in the book.)

Send your submission by either mail or email.

Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope so we can return submissions we are unable to use. Submissions without this cannot be returned.

Each contributor chosen for the anthology will receive a copy of the book when it is published.

It may take time for you to write your story. We'd like to know you are considering making a submission, however, so send us a letter by March 1,2009 with your contact information so we can offer our assistance.

Final drafts of stories, essays or poems must be postmarked on or before November 1, 2009. The final selection process will begin then.

Address your submissions to: Mary Zelinka, PO Box 3047, Albany, Oregon
97321-0700; or email to (replace (at) with @)

Questions or concerns?

Contact Mary Zelinka at PO Box 3047, Albany, OR 97321-0700 or

(replace (at) with @)

"Moms Gone Mad"

Poetry,Prose, and Visual Art Contest for new Mamapalooza Magazine

Call for submissions, on the topic "Moms Gone Mad," of poetry, prose (creative nonfiction or fiction) and visual art (photographs, drawings, paintings). Winners will receive publication in the premiere issue of Mamapalooza Magazine, official arts publication of the Mamapalooza Festival, to be published May 2009. Additionally, one Outstanding Prose piece, Outstanding Poem, and Outstanding Visual Art piece will each win a prize package of Mamapalooza merchandise and goodies. Editors Marjorie Tesser and Alana Ruben Free. Deadline 1/31. $10 entry fee. Full guidelines at www.mommygirlgogo.com.

Anthologies

MISCARRIAGE ANTHOLOGY
Catalyst Book Press is seeking literary essays telling personal stories of miscarriage, in particular emotional and spiritual ramifications of miscarriage or the transformations that occurred in people’s lives as a result of undergoing or observing a miscarriage. We are looking for essays that reflect a diversity of experiences and outcomes. Authors of accepted essays will receive $50 for their stories and one copy of the publication.

Submissions can be sent by August 15, 2009 to editor Jay Gibson at jaygibson@catalystbookpress.com or care of Catalyst Book Press, 709 Masson Ave. Apt. A, San Bruno CA 94066. If you wish your manuscript returned, please include an SASE.

BIRTH PARENT ANTHOLOGY
Catalyst Book Press is seeking literary essays telling personal stories of adoption, open adoption, birth parent connections, the adoption triad, and unification with children after closed adoption for an anthology for and about birth parents. Authors of accepted essays will receive $50 for their stories and one copy of the publication.

Submissions can be sent by August 15, 2009 to co-editors Ann and Amanda Angel, 15255 Turnberry Dr., Brookfield, WI 53005. For more information, please email Ann at alangel78@gmail.com. If you wish your manuscript returned, please include an SASE.

For more info: http://www.catalystbookpress.com/Guidelines.html

Catalyst Book Press

Found this on Erika Dreifus' The Practicing Writer:

Catalyst Book Press seeks literary essays telling personal stories for two anthologies, one focusing on birth parents, and the other on the subject of miscarriage. The submission deadline for both books is August 15, 2009, and payment in each case will be $50 plus one copy of the book: http://www.catalystbookpress.com/Guidelines.html

Call for Submissions: Women's Work Festival

A Works-In-Progress Play Reading Series

Deadline: January 5, 2009

To be produced by RCA Theatre, She Said Yes!, and White Rooster Productions in celebration of International Women’s Week, March 6 – 8, 2009

Theatre companies RCA Theatre, She Said Yes!, and White Rooster Productions are joining forces to present the third annual series of play readings by and about women, in celebration of International Women’s Week.

All submissions must be either by a female playwright or deal with a female character as the central figure. All plays must be unproduced, although previous workshops or readings of the work are permitted.

Scripts will be selected by Ruth Lawrence, Artistic Director of White Rooster Productions and Sara Tilley, Artistic Director of She Said Yes!. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process via email no later than February 1, 2009.

Each script will receive a one-day dramaturgical workshop in February with a professional cast and dramaturge, followed by a staged reading in St. John’s between March 6-8, 2009. All playwrights, actors and dramaturges will receive a small honorarium for their work. The Festival does not cover any transportation or accommodations costs for out-of-town playwrights. All proceeds from the reading series will be donated to a local women’s shelter.

To submit your script:

Submit a hard copy of a full draft of your play, with a cover letter indicating your telephone number, mailing address, and email address, as well as your reasons for applying to the Festival, to:

Women’s Work Festival c/o RCA Theatre
3 Victoria St, LSPU Hall
St. John’s, NL
A1C 3V2
Canada

Or deliver by hand between 9 am-5 pm, Monday-Friday, to Nicole Rousseau or Amy House, RCA Theatre, 223-233 Duckworth, Ste 202, above Haymarket Square.

http://www.shesaidyestheatre.ca/

Dads in Academia

The editors of Dads in Academia: Male Voices In and Out of the Ivory Tower invite contributions for an interdisciplinary collection of creative nonfiction essays on the rewards and challenges of being both a father and an academic. Much recent discussion about the juxtaposition of parenthood and the academy has focused on the difficulties that female professors face when they choose to become mothers. Books like Mama, PhD, edited by Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans, depict the oftentimes bleak prospects of merging the two endeavors. This collection welcomes the masculine voice into this lively and provocative dialogue. Further, Dads in Academia creates a space for male professors to describe their own experiences of balancing the demands and desires of two worlds that have changed notably throughout the past few decades: fatherhood and academia.

We encourage contributors to consider the changing cultural perceptions, representations, and expectations associated with fatherhood, and to explore the impact of such changes on their identities as teachers and scholars. Increasingly, fathers are taking on a more intense role with regard to child-rearing than ever before. How do today’s male academics view their participation in the parenting process? How is this changing the nature of the job? Has the evolving role of the father in contemporary society changed the job itself?

We also welcome essays that focus on how the evolution of fatherhood is changing the face of academia. Have we seen any concrete changes on college campuses to encourage the “professor as interactive father” schemata? What is the climate like for male professors who “want it all”? Are they able to balance fatherhood and the road to tenure? What gives?

Editors:
Mary Ruth Marotte, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of Graduate Studies in English at the University of Central Arkansas, where she specializes in women’s studies and critical theory. Her book, Captive Bodies: American Women Writers Redefine Pregnancy and Childbirth, was released by Demeter Press in October 2008. She lives in Conway, AR with her husband and three children.

Paige Martin Reynolds, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas. Her specializations include Shakespeare, British Renaissance Drama, Performance Studies, and Elizabeth I. She has written articles published or forthcoming in SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, ANQ: American Notes and Queries, and 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era. She lives in Little Rock, AR with her husband and daughter.

Deadline: March 1, 2009

Length: 1,500 to 4,000 words.

Format: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and a short bio on the last page.

Contact: Mary Ruth Marotte at mrmarotte AT hotmail DOT com for more information

The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize

Dear Reader,

Four weeks left to enter!
The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize
The Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize

$2000 each and publication in Crazyhorse.

Postmark Deadline to Enter: December 15, 2008
Upload your entry online or mail.

Each year Crazyhorse offers the Crazyhorse Fiction Prize for a single short story and the Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize for a single poem. The competition is open, the prize awards are currently $2000 for each genre.The winning poem and story are published in Crazyhorse.

Visit http://crazyhorse.cofc.edu and click on "Fiction and Poetry Prize" for complete details.

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories

Part of the problem is that I treat writing like a privilege not an obligation. It comes after everything, after all my other responsibilities.

Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz
My Writing Life

Woman’s Work: The Short Stories is a celebration of what happens when women finally get to the page. About the extraordinary stories that spill out of these extraordinary, and often ignored, storytellers during those stolen moments when she surrenders to her burning desire to write, to create.

GirlChild Press seeks the fresh and exciting voices of writers that can entice the reader with intricate tales of shapeshifters and evil doppelgangers, rock and roll princesses in twisted fairy tales, broken gunslingers in deserted western towns, and political murder mysteries that lead to sex in illicit places.

We will follow her through rabbit holes and pop up as mermaids dressed in camouflage, all while reveling in a romance that bloomed on a long-forgotten battlefield in outer space. Surprises will await us at every corner. We will discover what is passionate, and pure, and complicated and be glad for it.

Ultimately, Woman’s Work is about women as master storytellers.

Submission Requirements

• Deadline: March 1, 2009
• No more than 2 previously unpublished short stories per submission
• Simultaneous submissions okay, but notify if your work is accepted elsewhere
• 4,000 words or less
• Double spaced
• NO POETRY

All contributors will receive a copy of the anthology and will be invited to read at the book launch in 2009.

Electronic Submissions

Girlchildpress@aol.com
Title of submission should be placed in the subject line.
Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission.

Snail Mail
GirlChild Press
PO Box 93
Hyattsville, MD 20781

Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and short bio with your submission

GirlChild Press publishes work that celebrates the triumph, defiance, and excellence of girls and women everywhere!

For more information about GirlChild Press visit www.girlchildpress.com

The Mama Mary Show

The Mama Mary Show is seeking submissions about stories of loss, grief, redemption and joy from Daughters who have lost their Dads:

I am looking for submissions from any and all women who have lost their dads, any age and any circumstance. The pain is universal but each individual story is unique.

I loved my Dad more than anything. I miss him more than words. And that is the main impetus for creating this book. It’s an ode to my father…to all the lost fathers out there. And it’s a therapeutic glass of wine with women of “the club” who want to commiserate and celebrate their loss, together. I want it to be as beneficial for those that are contributing, as it is for those that read it. I want them all to know it gets better.

If you are reading this and have lost your father, first and foremost I am sorry for your loss. If you would like to contact me about this project or send me a submission for consideration in the book please email me at mbgodwin@gmail.com. If you are reading this and have not lost your father, go give him a hug and know that this book will someday exist for you if you ever need it.

MY MISSION – ON A GLOBAL LEVEL

1) To offer solace and comfort to women that have gone through the devastating loss of their father. To help them:
Know what they are feeling is normal
Know they are not alone
Know that it gets better
2) To bring together the women of “the club.”
3) To allow women contributing an avenue to release some grief in a positive way through their writings and commemorate their father in a timeless manner.
4) To explore and portray the precious relationships between dads and daughters.
5) To juxtapose the universality of grief as well as the uniqueness of everyone’s individual stories
6) To raise money for and awareness of Hospice.

ON A PERSONAL LEVEL

1) I want to turn my “pity party” into something positive.
2) Pay if forward and make my dad proud.
3) To help myself and others feel close to our dads again.

Call for Papers

An Edited Collection

by Demeter Press

The Palin Factor: Political Mothers and Public Motherhood in the 21st Century

Editors: Andrea O’Reilly and Deirdre M. Condit

The nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican party Vice Presidential nominee in the 2008 U.S. president election has initiated a public conversation about the meaning and depiction of Sarah Palin and her role as a publicly elected, working “hockey mom.” Despite Palin’s active embrace of her “hockey mom” image, her public motherhood remains enigmatic. The election of women to public office has been a central goal of the women’s movement precisely because the voices and experiences of women and mothers have been, from the outset of our democracies, simply absent. Whether or not Sarah Palin continues in national public life following the 2008 election, she is a breakthrough figure for public women who mother small children. Moreover, Palin’s national candidacy offers an opportunity for public and academic discourse about what it means to be an elected, and thus public, representative of other women and wage earning mothers. This edited collection seeks to inaugurate a timely, interdisciplinary, theoretical and critical discussion of the Palin phenomenon as an iconic representation of public motherhood.

Topics include but are not limited to:

Media representations, interpretations or responses to Palin’s motherhood; Public discourse on Palin balancing her work as Governor or Vice Presidential candidate and being a mother; Her role as a public mother of a child with disabilities; The impact of her as a wage working mother on voters; Her status as a policy making mother on disability policy; Palin as an icon for conservative, Christian-identified non-wage working mothers; The evident conflict between Palin’s self-identification as a Christian Conservative, whose values include “traditional gender roles,” and the juxtaposition of her evident work and family life style; The sexualization of Palin among white, conservative, working men and its impact on their discourses about mothers and motherhood; Her transformational role as the “head of the family,” and her husband’s public transformation as the “little man” at home; Discussions of public or party rhetoric about “working mothers”; The conflicting responses among liberal women’s groups concerning Palin’s status as a working-mother feminist; The commodification of the “hockey” mom identity in politics; Palin’s public/private mothering conflicts; Public displays and deployment of the motherhood trope; Racialized responses to Palin’s mothering style and messages; Public life and the possibilities of “intensive mothering”; Palin and political motherhood and the politics of Motherhood; The transparency of public mothering; in the Palin case; Feminist discourse on Palin; Sexism, Mother Blame in Politics; Mothers in Politics/Mothers as Politicians; Public representation of and responses to Palin as the mother of a teen mom; Political tokenism and mothers; Sexuality, motherhood and politics; Gendered responses to Palin as mother and as politician; Progressive versus conservative positioning of mother politicians; The Republican deployment, use and misuses of Palin (Palin as a sacrificial lamb); Palin and Mothers’ Rights; (Mis) readings of Palin as Pro-Mother; Palin and the (new?) conservative/religious right feminism; Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin.

Please submit a 250 word abstract and 50 word bio February 1, 2009 to aoreilly@yorku.ca. (Accepted chapters (of 15-18 pages in length) due July 1 2009)

--
Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)
Demeter Press
726 Atkinson, York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON,
Canada, M3J 1P3
416-736-2100 x60366 (fax) 416-736-5766
arm@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm

Dyke Moms, Donor Dads, and Reconceiving the Queer Family:

This anthology, to be published in 2009, will explore, through personal essays and first-person accounts, the phenomenon of lesbian moms (single and coupled) who choose male friends or acquaintances, rather than an anonymous sperm donor, to father their children.

With no clear models to follow, this new version of the queer family is creating its own. That’s where this anthology comes in. We are seeking stories that are funny, touching, heartbreaking, provocative, thoughtful — and very, very relevant to the new queer (and queer-positive) family.

We are looking for creative non-fiction and first-person accounts by lesbian, bisexual, transgender and two-spirited mothers who have chosen known sperm donors in order to conceive; men who have become sperm donors to them;their partners, their children, and other invested parties.
Submit!

Submissions might explore (but should not be limited to) the following issues and themes:

When baby-making doesn’t take or takes too long; dealing with infertility, miscarriage, or even routine insemination is difficult enough for the average couple, so what happens when the donor also becomes emotionally involved?

Can his parents come to visit? Is it rude to insist they stay in a hotel?

The other mother: What happens to the experience of non-biological mothers when a biological “Dad” is also part of the picture? Non-biological moms talk about the processes and challenges of claiming their roles as primary parents.

What does “donor dad” mean anyway? How does the choice to become a donor redefine circles of gay male friends and the identities of gay men?

My husband is sleeping with lesbians! What does it mean when your partner is the father of the new baby — but the baby isn’t yours?

Queer divorce: What happens to the donor if the moms split up? What happens when the relationship between moms and donor deteriorates?

To submit, send two double-spaced hard copies and an electronic copy on disc (in .rtf format) to the address below. Submissions should not exceed 15 pages or 7,500 words. Please left-justify your submission and use a serif font (e.g., Times New Roman) in 12-point size.

Please include your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a brief bio (100 words). Submissions will not be returned.

Deadline for Submissions: January 15, 2009. Please contact us if you are planning to submit an essay.
Contact us:
Chloё Brushwood Rose & Susan Goldberg, Editors
Reconceiving Anthology
c/o Dr. Chloë Brushwood Rose
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada

reconceivinganthology@gmail.com

MOTHERHOOD & PHILOSOPHY:

MOTHERHOOD & PHILOSOPHY:
WHAT PHILOSOPHY HAS TO SAY ABOUT MOTHERS AND
WHAT MOTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT PHILOSOPHY

Sheila Lintott (ed.)
Department of Philosophy
Bucknell University


Abstracts with titles are solicited for a new volume in the Wiley-Blackwell series Philosophy for Everyone, under the general series editorship of Fritz Allhoff. As with previous titles now subsumed under the series—Wine & Philosophy, Beer & Philosophy, Food & Philosophy, and Running & Philosophy—Motherhood & Philosophy will be an interdisciplinary collection meant to be accessible to an educated, but non-specialized, audience. Essays should avoid discipline-specific jargon and should inquire into issues of import to mothers and anyone interested in motherhood. The collection will explore the philosophical dimensions of motherhood, including (at least) feminist, existential, ethical, aesthetic, phenomenological, and social and political considerations of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering by compiling the insights of academics and mothers from a broad range of disciplines and from outside the academy.

If you are interested in submitting work to this project, bear in mind that your essay should incorporate serious philosophical reflection on motherhood. This need not preclude your work from being lively, engaging, and even entertaining.



Guidelines for Contributions:

Abstract of paper (approx. 250 words) submission deadline: 15 December 2008
Acceptances will be issued by 1 February 2009
Submission deadline for completed papers will be 1 June 2009
Final papers should be approximately 4000-5000 words
Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to sheila.lintott@bucknell.edu.

Please contact Sheila Lintott at the above email address if you have any questions about the book. Other proposals for series titles are also welcome; please direct those to Fritz Allhoff at fritz.allhoff@wmich.edu.

Suggested topics:

More topics related to motherhood are worthy of philosophical reflection than can be articulated here, but the following is a long list of suggestions that may prove fertile ground for inspiration.

On Pregnancy:
Phenomenology: What is it like to be pregnant?
Identity: Who am "I" when pregnant? Am I plural or singular?
Disability Studies: Examination of the intersections of pregnancy and disability, reflections on the increase in pregnancy discrimination complaints, reflections on birth defects and disorders
Ethics: What obligations does the pregnant woman have to the unborn child she carries? How do these obligations differ after birth? What about drug and alcohol use during pregnancy? Reflections on family and medical leave policies for academic and nonacademic moms.
Body Image: Can pregnancy liberate women from the tyranny of cultural norms of prescribed thinness?
Race/Ethnicity: How is the pregnant woman's body experienced and represented in racialized/racist ways?
Death: Reflections on loss during pregnancy, childbirth, or childhood

On Childbirth:
Birth Control: Has the medicalization of childbirth helped or harmed women?
A Face Only a Mother Could Love: Are newborn babies really beautiful?

Birth Stories: What is the narrative structure of birth stories? Why are birth stories important and yet seemingly inappropriate for public discourse?
Murphy Brown Feels Like a Natural Woman: The affect the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth on television and in film on expectations and experiences of pregnancy and birth
Pleasure and Pain: Considerations of why women have more than one child (after having experienced the excruciating pain of childbirth first-hand)

On Mothering:
What's in a Name: What is a mother? A mom?
The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love: Should all moms love being moms?
Brooke vs. Tom: On the nature, proper treatment, and representation of postpartum depression
To Nurse or Not to Nurse: On social and cultural pressures to breastfeed, bottle-feed, or wean
Mommy Wars: Sarah Palin, Hilary Clinton, and the portrayal of moms in power
A Mother's Love: Can we rationally evaluate our children's strengths and weaknesses or are we necessarily biased (to exaggerate the good or even the bad)?
Gender Differences: On differences between mothering a daughter and mothering a son
Role-sharing: Can equity exist in parenting or co-parenting relationships?
Gender Roles: What are the differences between mothers and fathers?
Work/family Balance: The politics of professional moms "opting out," practicing philosophy and being a mom, being an academic and a mom
Parenting: Feminist moms, co-parenting, and non-traditional families
My Mother, Myself: What are the existential implications of the realization that I am, after all, becoming my mother?

damselfly press

damselfly press seeks to promote exceptional writing by women whose voices have not yet been heard. We welcome work from female writers of all backgrounds and experiences. We accept fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that is honest and daring, and explores the relationship between dualities. Joy, pain. Boldness, vulnerability. Sacred, profane. Be passionate about your writing, and explore the truth that lies within. There is truth even in fiction; make us believe what you have to say.

We read year round.
Please send online submissions only with the genre in the header of the e-mail.

Submissions must be in a Microsoft® Word document or .RTF attachment.
Please include writer’s contact information on a separate cover page.

We are unable to provide compensation to writers for accepted submissions at this time.

If a writer’s work initially appears in damselfly press and is later published elsewhere, we request an acknowledgement.

Fiction- Send 9-10 pages of fiction not to exceed 2,500 words max. Submitters may send up to two fictional stories per submission to the fiction editor.
Poetry- Send 1-3 poems per submission to the poetry editor.
Nonfiction- Send 3-10 pages of nonfiction not to exceed 2,500 words max. Submitters may send up to two nonfiction submissions such as memoir or personal essays to the nonfiction editor.

Writers must include bios not to exceed 50 words.
We do not accept previously published work.
For writers whose work has been accepted by our journal, please refrain from re-submitting up to a year after publication.

Philosophical Inquiry into Pregnancy

Call for Papers
Submit abstracts for papers or panels
Approximately 750 words
Due January 31, 2009, at 5:00 p.m.
E-mail submissions or questions to
PCM_Conference@yahoo.com

Include a cover sheet with name, institution, department,and contact information. Document should be submitted in MS Word (.doc file). For further details and registration information, please link to:

(www.uoregon.edu/~uophil/events.html)

Hosted by the University of Oregon and the Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering Research Group. Sponsorship provided by the University of Oregon Graduate School, the Center for the Study of Women in Society, the Oregon Humanities Center, the University of Oregon Department of
Philosophy, and the Graduate Student Philosophy Club.

COMPOSER SEEKING POET

I am currently setting the Agnus Dei from the liturgical mass for male voices and piano and am looking for supplemental words from a living poet to compliment the Latin text. If interested, please send your work to shelbypug@hotmail.com. This is not competition – no prize award, but you will be credited in the completed work.

Girl Talk: 25 Open Letters to Our Female Friends

BF s. Frenemies. Gal pals. Female friendships are such a unique, fragile entity that there are even words made up to describe them.
And if you’re female and reading this, you know all too well exactly why. From the best friend who drops everything for you, to the subtle (or not-so-subtle) underminer, to the one you know will agree with you no matter what, to the one you turn to for the truth about how you really look in those pants, our female friends are our backbones, our saviors, our laugh-so-hard-you-cry-with pals, and sometimes our worst enemies.

Have you ever wanted to tell your former BF how you really feel? Longed to tell The Friend Who Got Away that you were sorry for the way you snubbed her in 8th grade for the popular crowd? Wish you could tell your friend what you really think about her husband? After all, you’ve dished to everyone within earshot, why not address her directly? Well, here’s your chance. For Girl Talk: 25 Open Letters to Our Female Friends, we’re looking for a wide range of stories, in a letter format.

Letter topics will include ( just some general ideas to help you brainstorm):
• the one who got away
• the one who you can turn to for anything
• the one who will always tell you the truth
• the one from whom you’ve kept a secret all these years
• the one from childhood that you’ve lost touch with
• the one who died young
• the one who did you wrong
• the one who constantly puts you down, leaving you wondering if it’s just you

The Fine Print:

WHO Send submissions to editor Megan McMorris at megmc@earthlink.net.

WHEN Deadline for submissions is January 15. Book will be published in Fall ‘09.

HOW LONG We aim for a variety of lengths, but try and keep it in the 1,000 to 3,000 range.

WHY Besides the fun experience of writing the letter you’ve always wanted to send, contributors will receive $100 payable upon publication and two copies of the book (please note: you do keep your copyright, and contributors are encouraged to publish them
as excerpts elsewhere).

A River & Sound Review

A River & Sound Review announces its first reading period. From Oct. 1 thru Dec. 31, RSR will accept submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and humor to be considered for inclusion in the forthcoming RSR online literary journal.

All submissions will be accepted via e-mail: Visit
www.riverandsoundreview.org/submitRSR.htm for details. For more information on A River & Sound Review, or to download a podcast of past RSR shows and performances, visit www.riverandsoundreview.org.

Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages

Foreword by Carolyn Lesser, Webster University, St. Louis, MO, nonfiction writing faculty; natural science children's books published by Harcourt, Alfred A. Knopf; essayist, poet, photographer, keynote speaker, artist.

Afterword by Dr. Loriene Roy, 2007-2008 President of the American Library Association. Professor, University of Texas at Austin, founder of "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a national reading club for Native American children.

Please consider sharing the important milestones, life changing events, transitions in your life--material that would broadly fit the "Women's Studies" genre that is highly readable, moving and relatable. There are the passages that occur to us (for example, losing a loved one, and then the passages we choose (such as adopting a child). Please focus on those pivotal moments and why they were important passages for you.

Currently, we have enough material on: chronic/acute illness; getting a degree; career changes; relocating.

Suggestions for topics as of yet relatively unexplored: changing/leaving/going back to a new or former religion or mode of spirituality (no preaching, please); how participation in outdoor adventure changed your life; milestones about deciding to be true to yourself (such as coming out, ending a negative friendship, setting healthy boundaries).

This book celebrates our passages as women, from one moment into another, from one door to the next. Often it is after the navigation, that in reflection, we see that some of the most difficult are the ones we have learned the most and have had lasting effects as well on those around us.

Send proposed topics before writing articles to avoid duplication; proposed topics must be accompanied by a 65-70 word bio with your present position, location, relevant publications, career highlights for the contributor page; please use POETS or PASSAGES/your name on the subject line to brackett-vincent@encirclepub.com by November 15, 2008.

Article specifics: word total for 1-2 articles based on your experience: 1,900 minimum; maximum 2,100. Two articles preferred. If submitting two articles, please break them up fairly evenly in word count.

No previously published or simultaneously submitted material. Contributors must be reside in the U.S. Books such as this can typically take up to a year to compile. Contributors receive a complimentary copy and contributor's discount on additional copies.

Co-editor Cynthia Brackett-Vincent is publisher/editor of the esteemed Aurorean poetry journal; poetry instructor; award-winning poet; author of The 95 Poems chapbook (2005) and contributor to Educators as Writers: Publishing for Personal and Professional Development. In 2007, her poems received a citation, honorable mention and second place in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, New England Writers and Maine Poets Society competitions. View Cynthia at
http://www.encirclepub.com/poetry/aurorean/editor

Co-editor, Carol Smallwood has written, co-authored, and edited 19 books such as Educators as Writers for Scarecrow, Libraries Unlimited. An award-winning writer, her work has appeared in English Journal, Clackamas Literary Review, Iris, and several others including anthologies; chapbook, Pudding House 2008; Educators as Writers,Peter Lang 2006;
and http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3575-3

Women Writing on Today's American Family

Foreword: Robbi Hess, Journalist, co-author, Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names (Penguin Books); Editor, Byline Magazine

Afterword: Melanie Mayo-Laakso, Writer, Publisher and
Editor, MotherVerse: A Journal of Contemporary Motherhood

This is a book about writing and publishing about family by women with family publication credits. Possible subjects: markets; why women write about family; using life experience; networking; unique issues women must overcome; formal education; queries and proposals; conference participation; self-publishing; teaching tips; family in creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, novels. Contributors have already covered: blogs, using family history, managing time, privacy issues.

Practical, concise, how-to articles with bullets/headings have proven the most helpful to readers. Please avoid writing about "me" and concentrate on what will help the reader. A question and answer format for interviews may be used.

Two articles each 950-1050 words; minimum 1900, maximum 2100 words total. No previously published or simultaneously submitted material or co-authors.

The deadline for current cycle of submissions is November 15, 2008.

Contributors receive a complimentary copy and contributor's discount on additional copies. It is common for compilation of an anthology to take upwards of a year, but I will be in touch with updates on securing a publisher.

Editor: Carol Smallwood has written, co-authored, and edited 19 books such as Educators as Writers (Peter Lang, 2006); chapbook, (Pudding House 2008); The Published Librarian (American Library Association, forthcoming). My work has appeared in English Journal, Clackamas Literary Review, Iris, The Detroit News, several others including anthologies; a recent book is http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3575-3

Please send topics for feedback/65-70 word bio. Place FAMILY and your name on the subject line, send to: smallwood@tm.net

Most publishers return rights to contributors after publication. Contributors will be asked to sign a release from the publisher and therefore may agree to the details of the contract or withdraw.

“EDUCATED IN FREEDOM”

Edited collection seeking essays about student experiences in “free” or alternative schools. Despite many current debates about education(Charter Schools, accountability, “No Child Left Behind,” national standards, etc.), there has been little attention paid to students who have experienced education without tests, grades, assigned curriculum, or other forms of external pressure to learn. What does self-directed learning look like? What kinds of environments are created in these “free schools”? What kinds of projects/work take place in alternative schools? How do alternative schools change the experience of learning?

We are looking for well-crafted personal reflections on alternative education. We’re not looking for arguments about the pros and cons, or scholarly research on alternative education. Just tell your story. Positive and negative experiences are welcome.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Relationships with teachers
Descriptions of particular projects or learning experiences
Reasons why students opted out of traditional schools
Alternative schools as communities/within their larger communities
The transitioning from an alternative school to a traditional school, and vice versa
Reflections on how alternative education shaped your life after school
For those who have become teachers themselves: how has your alternative education has informed your own ways of teaching?

PHOTOS and artwork also considered.

Editors: Aeron Haynie is Associate Professor and former chair of the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She has published scholarly work on Victorian literature, college teaching, and has published creative nonfiction essays. She attended The Central Community School (CCS), an open-classroom “free school” in Buffalo, New York from 1970 to 1975.

Julian Fleron is Professor of Mathematics at Westfield State College, a college founded by Horace Mann as the nation’s first coeducation teachers college. His scholarly work and publications span a number of areas in mathematics and mathematics education, often focusing on the negative impact of public (mis)perceptions of mathematics. He too is a CCS alumni - 1970 to 1974.

Deadline: proposals or complete essays by February 1, 2009.

Length: 1,500 to 4,000 words (about 5 to 20 double-spaced pages).

Format: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and a short bio.

Submitting: Send essays to hayniea AT uwgb DOT edu
Or mail to Aeron Haynie, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, TH 331, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311.

APRONSTRINGS

Apronstrings: A new magazine in production for mothers in Ireland. Just well-written, thought-provoking pieces, portraying with honesty what it is to be a mother - the highs and lows and the in-betweens.

Personal essays to be of length 800--4,000 words. We are looking for original, insightful works which avoid the bland clichés at all costs. For feature articles (up to 6,000 words), please submit outline ideas along with CV / portfolio details. Fiction (up to 4,500 words) - we welcome pieces in the short story format but it's really the personal essays that make up the bulk of this publication. We only plan to include one fictional piece per issue. Work submitted will be held on file until such a time as it may be used, the author being consulted prior to publication. Payment will be agreed with author prior to publication.

At present we are looking at approx €60 - €100 per essay, depending on length. For commissioned pieces such as book reviews and longer feature articles, we will discuss these with individual writers.

ApronStrings welcomes submissions from Irish and International writers

Wisdom of Our Mothers

This website's aim is to gather stories about what we have learned from our mothers, how we feel about it, and how it affects the way we live our lives. These stories will be collected into a book, tentatively titled Wisdom of Our Mothers. Fifty percent of the profits from the book will be donated to shelters for mothers and their children escaping from abusive relationships.

If your work is accepted, you will be paid $100 per story upon publication of the book. (See FAQs for other payment options.)

To contribute your story, click "Send Story"

To read sample stories, click "Read Stories."

ON MOTHERHOOD

Our mothers were our first teachers. The lessons we learned were different, but for nearly all of us, they had a profound impact, laying the foundation for our feelings, values, self-image, and personalities.

This is not to idealize motherhood. We were taught by human beings, and the lessons carried with them all the flaws of which humans are capable. Sometimes they brought distress, resentments, and estrangement, as well as wisdom.

But they came from what is the most demanding task which most humans could ever face: bringing into this world another human being, nurturing, caring for that life, for as long as the mother or child lives.
No one can ever define fully what this means either to mothers or their children, but we can contribute to this site our experiences to flesh out what maternal wisdom means to us. And when, in a few months, we have gathered enough stories, we can share our experiences through the completed anthology, Wisdom of Our Mothers.

Seeking children's drawings...

Seeking Children's Drawings for Publication:

Gia Giasullo, who designed the Single Mom Seeking book cover for Seal Press, is working on a book project, and this is a call for submissions for children's drawings.

I have a PDF that I send that further explains the project and how to submit artwork. I am a graphic designer (and a mom), preparing a collection of children's rejected drawings to be published in book format. Please contact me at gia@studioeg.com if you are interested, and I will provide you with additional information about myself, this project, and how your child's drawings may be included.

'Baby-shaped Hole'

is a charity anthology chronicling real-life experiences of infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and related issues. Please share your story: droll or indifferent, angry or melancholy, we want to hear about every aspect of this often hidden situation. Anonymity assured if requested.

Email babyshapedhole@googlemail.com for more information and submission guidelines.

Emprise Review

...is a new literary journal. We accept e-mailed submissions of poetry (please visit the samples on our site for an idea of where our interests lie), fiction, photography, and nonfiction. Nonfiction can include memoir, essays, articles, extended reporting, critical pieces, book reviews and more.

Guidelines: http://www.muttsbane.com

Mothers Creating/Writing Lives: Motherhood Memoirs

As memoir continues to expand in popularity, motherhood memoir has become an increasingly prominent and lucrative subgenre for contemporary authors. As Michelle Herman points out in The Middle of Everything: Memoirs of Motherhood, if forced to choose between her daughter and her writing, she would choose her daughter, but this would be an impossible and profoundly sad decision. Instead, her writing life is woven into her mothering life, and she finds that she can write in conditions she would have previously thought impossible. It is clear that writers who are also mothers must write their stories. How do they do it, why are so many readers interested in what they have to say, and what can we learn from them? Women have been writing about motherhood as long as they have been writing, but the contemporary shift to tell-all memoirs has changed the rules of writing about mothering, and perhaps, of mothering itself.

We are seeking proposals for a collection that will interrogate and critique the motherhood memoir. In addition to a new collection entitled Mama Ph.D.: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, there are several very recent motherhood memoirs that demand critical attention, works such as: Adrienne Martini's, Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood; Susan Johnson's, A Better Woman; Ayun Halliday's, The Big Rumpus; and Anne Roiphe's,Living Contradictions: A Memoir of Modern Motherhood. What are these and other writing mothers saying about the experience of mothering today? What, if any, universals are present in motherhood memoirs? What societal critiques and suggestions provide the bedrock for potential revolutionary parenting practices? This collection will strive to bridge the distance between writing mothers who are critics and writing mothers who are authors by privileging academic work that seeks to discuss and contextualize motherhood memoirs beside authors’ own experiences of mothering, academic life, and writing. Autotheoretical works are encouraged, as are works that seek to meaningfully compare contemporary motherhood memoirs with those written in other eras, or works which thematically explore a grouping of memoirs. For example, one might discuss the role of fathers, special needs children, mothering and mental illness, etc. in several volumes, particularly if these topics inform the author’s own experiences. Other possible topics include the range of issues related to choice (the choice of whether/when/how to mother, etc.), mothering and socioeconomic class, mothering and race, mothering at different ages, mothering and prose/poetic form, mothering and sexuality, and other topical themes.

Please send one to two page proposals and a curriculum vitae to Justine Dymond, jdymond@spfldcol.edu, and Nicole Willey, nwilley@kent.edu, by December 15, 2008.

The American Satellite

...is seeking submissions. The Satellite is a magazine of opinion, essay, & Satire. We accept submissions on a rolling basis. We do not accept fiction, poetry, etc… Please note: articles should be timely (i.e. relevant). The American Satellite rarely publishes anything over 1500 words.

All possible contributors should include their name, phone number, a biography of 50 words or less (written in the third person), and a brief synopsis of the piece to be considered. You can also include a simple headshot if you wish.

Please submit no more than two articles per month. All work should be pasted in the body of an e-mail. The subject line of your submission should read “submission – your name”. Submissions received with attachments will be unopened and deleted. All properly formatted submissions will receive an editorial response within one month.

The American Satellite accepts simultaneous submissions as well as previously published material.

To view further submission guidelines, including sought after topics, please follow the link below.

http://www.americansatellite.org/2008/08/american-satellite.html

Momma writers and bloggers for anthology!

(Posted by, "Mommy Weirdest" on craigslist)

I'm working on putting together an anthology of essays entitled "The Girl Least Likely..." These will all center around a general theme of woman who have stumbled into motherhood after working in academia, as artists or writers, or in the corporate world. We look for writers that aren't ashamed to breast feed in public, who are homeschooling, or found themselves as teen moms who came ahead.

700-3,000 words, queries welcome (and encouraged!)
Compensation: Payment upon publication (could take 6-9 months)

M/othering and a Bodied Curriculum

Call for submissions: M/othering and a Bodied Curriculum

Co-edited by Stephanie Springgay and Debra Freedman

A bodied curriculum attends to the relational, social, and ethical implications of “being-with” other bodies differently and to the different knowledges such bodily encounters produce. It is a practice of being oriented to others, to touch, to reflect, and to dwell with others relationally. Re-conceptualize m/othering as a bodied curriculum opens up maternity to the in-between of corporeality, materiality, and difference.

While much of Western thought has celebrated the splitting of women’s identity into “mother” or “other”—the perception that women cannot be both—re-thinking mothering from the perspective of “performativity” recognizes the relationality between mother and other. When mothering is conceived of as performative it becomes an active practice de-centering the notion that motherhood is passive and static. Perforamtivity shifts our attention from motherhood as biological, selfless, and existing prior to culture, to a practice that is always incomplete, indeterminable, and vulnerable. A relational understanding of m/othering opens up the possibility of an ethical form of exchange between self and other and allows us to understand the maternal subject as engaged in a relational process which is never complete and which demands reiteration. M/othering as performance contains the potential for a disruption of dominant discourses on maternity and thereby makes room for maternal agency. This re-conceptualization of m/othering refuses to be split, while also remaining ambivalent.

Submissions are sought from scholars interested in the intersections between mothering, educational scholarship, and identities of difference. The following topics among others are encouraged: readings of the maternal body in teaching and learning; mothering as curriculum; historical examinations of teacher-mothers; understandings, experiences, and practices of mothering that de-centre the western norms of motherhood; artistic documentation of aspects of motherhood; mothering and popular culture; the embrace of motherhood in education; the problematics of motherhood as a theme; the challenges of maintaining a balance between motherhood and teaching/research; making motherhood a "legitimate" topic for research; issues of motherhood and family leave in the workplace; mothering "success stories" in the face of adversity.

If you are interested in submitting to this co-edited collection please send an abstract by October 15, 2008.

Submit to Stephanie Springgay, sss23@psu.edu.
Subject line: M/othering.

Deadline for initial abstract: October 15, 2008. Include: Include: Title, Abstract (500-800 words), Name, Institutional Affiliation, Address, Phone, Email Address, and Brief Bio (50 words). Arts-based submissions are also welcome.

Stephanie Springgay and Debra Freedman are co-editors of the book Curriculum and the Cultural Body, Peter Lang 2007. Dr. Springgay is an Assistant professor of Art Education and Women’s Studies, Penn State University and Dr. Freedman is an Associate Professor at Ball State University.
Stephanie Springgay, Ph.D

Demeter Press

is seeking submissions for an edited collection on Latina/Chicana Mothering.

Publication Date: Spring 2011
Editors: Dorsía Smith Silva and Janine Santiago

We are very excited to edit an interdisciplinary book on mothering in the Latina and Chicana communities. We seek papers that examine the narratives, histories, practices, and theories of Latina and Chicana mothering as they reflect the realities and complexities of diverse perspectives. Latina and Chicana mothering is a rich experience, which engenders a sense of identity, multiple viewpoints, and cultural orientations. Here, the Latina/Chicana mothering experience seeks to provide a site for inquiry of those life histories and legacies, which have been marked by undergoing childbirth, raising children, or becoming mothers, as well as transatlantic mothers. One of the main goals of this text will be to examine the complex representations of Latina and Chicana mothering and to address the space where Latina and Chicana perspectives are in many cases rendered invisible.

We encourage varied approaches from across the humanities and social sciences including, but not limited to topics as the following: theoretical, historical, cultural,feminist, maternal, transgender, and gender studies; personal and reflective essays; ethnographies; oral histories, cultural studies; literary representation; mother activists and activism perspectives; constructions and hybridity theories of identity and changes in identity; constructions of ethnicity and changes in ethnicity; Latina and Chicana/mothering in global and transnational contexts; issues of immigration, diaspora, citizenship, national identity, embodiment theories; feminist philosophies of mothers and mothering; film and media representations; mothering conflicts; ideological and social debates and tensions within discussions of Latina and Chicana mothering; mothering critiques; issues of Latina and Chicana mothering, especially as they intersect with categories of race, discrimination, class, gender, economics, nation, family, community, education, and language; law, political, or scientific issues; politics and public policies; poverty; health, health care, reproduction,and reproductive rights; the role of web communities and technology; spiritual, cultural, emotional, communal, or social influences; support services for Latina and Chicana mothers; self-sponsored Latina and Chicana mothering communities and institutions; ideologies in Latino and Chicano communities

Abstracts/Proposals (250-400 words) due October 31, 2008

Acceptances made by December 1, 2008

Accepted and completed papers (15-20 pp. double-spaced, MLA format) due: March 31, 2009

Please send inquiries and papers, along with a brief biography, to:
Editors, Dorsía Smith Silva and Janine Santiago at latinachicanamothering@yahoo.com
About the Editors:

Dorsía Smith Silva teaches English in the College of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her research and teaching focus on Ethnic and Caribbean Literature, the Latino community and the Diaspora, and feminism. She is the author of several articles and is the co-editor of The Caribbean without Borders: Caribbean Literature, Language, and Culture (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).

Janine Santiago is an Assistant Professor of English at University of Puerto Rico, College of General Studies. Santiago was granted a Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003. Her research interests are in the areas of Gender Studies, Oral History, Caribbean Women Writers, and Hispanic and Latino/a Literature and Popular Culture. She has published several articles, including her work in Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (2006).

Call for Papers

Demeter Press is seeking submissions for an edited collection on Queering Parenting

Publication Date: Spring 2011
Editors: Susan Driver and Zoë Newman

A proliferation of experientially based essays, media stories, documentary films, television profiles, photographic essays and do-it-yourself manuals featuring lesbian mothers and gay dads have emerged to mark out cultural discourses in which to understand lesbian and gay families. But while these images and narratives enable positive representations that counter invisibility and marginalization, they often work to delimit transformative mode of thinking and acting beyond normalizing categories. For LGBTTT2Q communities in Canada, the US, and Europe, family has been a site of struggle and invisibility, and has also been constructed as a site of transformation and pride, sometimes with the result that we have sidelined interrogations of how ‘queer families’ are normative and exclusionary. It is those troubling, ambiguous and unintelligible subjects that do not fit neatly into parental discourses that need to enter into public dialogues as part of a comprehensive project of queering parenting.

This book adopts a range of critically queer theoretical perspectives to rethink the parameters of parenting and family beyond heteronormative boundaries. Our goal is to engage with difficult knowledges and changing embodied parental experiences that include dynamic gender and sexual arrangements as they are lived through multi-layered racial, national and class relations. Rather than list those identities that fit into a queer paradigm we encourage a more pliable framework that explores the institutions, languages and contexts of parenting, complicating the ways powers shape alternatives to white middle-class heterosexual nuclear formations. Our interest is in fostering interpretive work on parenting that bridges articulations of intimate subjectivity, and analysis of broad social and historical forces that cumulatively impact what can be done and said in the name of diverse family relations.
We hope to include a range of styles of academic writing, and encourage interdisciplinary modes of analysis. The following topics interest us but they do not exhaust the horizon of our search:

* Transgender parenting within and beyond bi-gender mother and father roles
* Transnational queer parenting or transnational and queer critiques of the family
* Affective/psychic/embodied transformations of queer parenting
* Queering public/private and national boundaries of reproductivity
* The status of ‘queer’ as a strategic and heuristic tool of family life
* Parenting and sexualities
* Media representations and spectacles of queer families
* Alternative visual and artistic depictions of family life
* Racialization of queer family discourses
* Queering family law
* Queer interventions with reproductive technologies
* Reflecting on gay and lesbian self-help parenting texts
* Community based queer family activism and organizing
* Commodification of queer parenting and queer families

Deadline for papers is October 31, 2008. All papers must be MLA format (7000 word limit).
Please submit inquiries and complete essays to both: sdriver@yorku.ca and znewman@yorku.ca
-
Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)
Demeter Press
726 Atkinson, York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON,
Canada, M3J 1P3
416-736-2100 x60366 (fax) 416-736-5766
arm@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm

Traveling Mamas Anthology

TravelingMamas.com is in search of true uplifting, funny, inspirational, and touching stories with a travel theme for an upcoming anthology series. Possible themes may include family travel, romantic escapes, girlfriend getaways, and solo trips.

We’re looking for stories that inspire us, force us to laugh out loud or make us reach for the tissue box. Bring us into your story by using the five senses. Every story must have a beginning, middle, and end.

Rights:

We are requesting one-time rights. Reprints are acceptable as long as you own the rights.
If your work has been published before we ask that you please send the name of the publication the story appeared and the date it was published with your submission. We will have the right to edit your work.

Submission:

Word count: 300-1000 words.
More than one story may be submitted.
The story can be told in first or third person. You don’t have to be a mom to tell the story.

Deadline is midnight September 1, 2008.

In the body of your email please include your name, address, phone number, and preferred email address. At the bottom of your story please include a brief author bio (no more than 100 words) to be included in the back of the book. If your story is chosen you will be able to revise your bio before publication.

Please send your submissions in the body of an email to: anthology@travelingmamas.com (no attachments will be opened).

Compensation:

$50 (Payment upon publication)

A Traveling Mamas travel pack that includes one copy of the book your story appears in.

Please be patient. This is a long process. We will let you know as soon we know if your story has been selected. If you don’t hear from us, we may be holding your story for upcoming books.

Thank you for joining our journey. We look forward to reading your stories.

The Traveling Mamas

A Special Issue of Women's Studies Quarterly

Call for Papers: MOTHER
Guest Editors: Nicole Cooley and Pamela Stone


We have entered a motherhood moment--from celebrity mom baby-bump sightings to recent televised debates between “stay at home moms” and “working moms,” from “welfare mothers” to “Alpha moms,” images of motherhood are circulating in our culture as never before.

Motherhood demands a new look. As women push motherhood later and later, as a larger share forego it entirely, and as mothering itself takes up a smaller fraction of women’s lives, why is the fascination with all things “mother” at an all-time high? What does it mean to be a mother when motherhood is increasingly decoupled from biology? At a time when women’s reproductive rights are vulnerable and the pro-choice movement on the defensive, why is so much of the discussion about mothering framed in the rhetoric of choice and agency? As the majority of mothers pursue both family and paid employment, the “cultural contradictions” of intensive mothering that sociologist Sharon Hays first identified over a decade ago do indeed seem, to paraphrase writer/journalist Judith Warner, an ever more “[im]perfect madness.”

This WSQ special issue invites feminist work that speaks to our current historical moment in an effort to try to begin to construct a comprehensive and critical overview of mothers, mothering, and motherhood. We welcome academic papers from a variety of perspectives in all disciplines, from theory, qualitative research, and empirical studies to literary studies. We would also be interested in memoir and first-person essays, fiction, poetry, art, and writing which blurs boundaries and crosses genres in its exploration of mothering.


Topics to be explored include:

· Discourses around motherhood and how they are shaped by race, ethnicity, immigrant status and sexuality

· Mothers in the workplace: The price of motherhood, “mommy tracking” and “maternal wall,” “opting out”

· The “mommy wars”: Stay-at-home moms vs. working moms

· The paid and unpaid work of mothering and caregiving; the “second shift”

· Motherhood, loss and grief: Infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and infant and child death

· Motherhood and disability/special needs

· Intensive mothering: Ideologies and practices around co-sleeping, breastfeeding, homeschooling and unschooling, toilet-training, tutoring

· Mothers as consumers: The marketing of motherhood

· Pregnancy: The medicalization of and birthing practices, representations of the mother’s body, assisted reproductive technologies (ART), surrogacy, abortion and reproductive choice

· New models of motherhood: LGBT moms, young moms, single mothers, stepmothers and blended families

· Men as moms: Stay-at-home dads, coparenting, single fathers

· Immigration and motherhood; global labor chains

· Childcare and domestic labor: Practices, issues and politics

· Motherhood and ecofeminism, explorations of “mother nature”

· Mommy lit as its own brand of chick-lit and the new “dad” books

· Mothers and digital media: The role of mommy blogs, list-servs, message boards and social networking sites

· Adoption: Transnational and domestic, transracial

· Motherhood and public policy: From debates about FMLA to activist groups such as MomsRising

· Mothering older children, mothering adult children, grandmothering

· Motherhood and Third Wave Feminism

· The experiences of women who choose not to mother

· Mothering in comparative, global and transnational contexts

If submitting academic work, please send abstracts by September 30, 2008 to the guest editors Pamela Stone and Nicole Cooley at: WSQMotherIssue@gmail.com. If accepted:
Full papers should be no longer than 22 pages, and will be due by January 1, 2009.

Poetry submissions should be sent to WSQ's poetry editor Kathleen Ossip, at ossipk@aol.com, by January 1, 2009.

Fiction, essay, and memoir submissions should be sent to WSQ's fiction/nonfiction editor, Susan Daitch, at sdaitch@hunter.cuny.edu by January 1, 2009.

Art submissions should be sent to WSQMotherIssue@gmail.com by January 1, 2009. Please keep in mind that after art is reviewed and accepted, accepted art must be sent to the journal’s managing editor on a CD that includes all artwork of 300 DPI or greater, saved as 4.25 inches wide or larger. These files should be saved as individual JPEGS or TIFFS

Chicken Soup seeking submissions

This comes from the Yahoo Group, "Paying Writer Jobs" message boards.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms

Subtitle: 101 Stories Celebrating the Power of Choice
for Stay at Home and Work from Home Moms

Raising children, managing homes, and maybe even keeping a hand in the
working world can place incredible demands on mothers. These multi-tasking,
high-performing women have become today’s power moms.

Moms – share your stories about being a mom and doing it all.
Dads – share your feelings about your stay at home wife.
And children of moms who stayed at home – tell us about your mom.

Stories should be written in the first person and should not exceed 1200 words. Any stories are welcomed, including those on the following topics:

• Celebrating the choice to be at home: Share your most treasured moments
• Making the choice to stay home or scale back work to raise kids
• Managing the new demands of raising healthy, accomplished and
well-balanced children
• Meeting the challenges of running a household in an increasingly busy
world
• Clever ways of multi-tasking: getting it all done every day
• Dad at work, Mom at home: Surviving the division of labor in your marriage
• Facing Baby Brain Drain: Making quality time for yourself
• Reclaiming the joys of work through charity and community service
• Creative ways to work from home
• Mompreneurs: Making your own family-friendly job
• Reinventing yourself when the kids are all in school
• The power of female friendship: How women rely on each other to get
through the day
• The buck stops with you: Feeling the pressure of being everyone’s go-to person
• Life in the minivan: Making the most of the driving black hole
• Giving up the Guilt: When doing it all is impossible

If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book. You will also receive a check for $200 and ten free copies of the book, worth more than $100. Your story will be copyrighted in your name and you will retain your rights to resell the story to another publication after it is published by Chicken Soup.

DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 1, 2008. SUBMISSIONS GO TO
Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Submissions to our web site receive faster attention and are more likely to be published, but if you do not have Internet access, please submit your story by mail or by facsimile.

Chicken Soup for the Soul
P.O. Box 700
Cos Cob, CT 06807-0700
Fax 203-861-7194

call for manuscripts - The Ultimate Series

From HCI Books:

We're looking for "slice-of-life" stories and photos that are inspirational, motivational, humorous or thought-provoking. Here's what's looming, please don't procrastinate - we're already evaluating stories (thank you if you've already sent one!):

submission deadline June 30, 2008(*) The Ultimate Christmas (pub date Nov 2008)
submission deadline July 31, 2008 The Ultimate Teacher (pub date Feb 2009)
submission deadline August 31, 2008 The Ultimate Mom (pub date March 2009)
submission deadline September 30, 2008 The Ultimate Dad (pub date April 2009)

All the details you'll need (e.g. what we pay, our guidelines, book synopses, and a full list of titles in development) can be found at www.ultimatehcibooks.com.

Links on the main menu will provide access to pages of details.

Cruise around and enjoy yourself.

Share Some Comfort

A Cup of Comfort is a bestselling anthology (book) series featuring uplifting true stories about the experiences and relationships that inspire and enrich our lives. These slice-of-life stories are written by people from all walks of life and provide unique personal insights into powerful universal truths.

We are now seeking submissions for the following volumes:

A Cup of Comfort for New Mothers
Submission Deadline: 5/15/2008
A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families
Submission Deadline: 6/15/2008
A Cup of Comfort for Fathers
Submission Deadline: 8/1/2008
A Cup of Comfort for Parents of Children with Special Needs
Submission Deadline: 8/15/2008
A Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers II
Submission Deadline: 12/15/2008
A Cup of Comfort for the Grieving Heart
Submission Deadline: 2/1/2009

See Writer's Guidelines for additional details.

Mothering Out Loud: Moms Tell the Truth About Blogging it All

Call for Submissions on Two Proposed Anthologies:

Looking for mama bloggers interested in opening up in a proposed anthology to be edited by the founder of MotherVerse Magazine and The MotherVerse Blog ( http://www.motherverse.com ). The anthology will focus on the behind the scenes lives of moms who blog their lives. The book will address questions such as why moms blog, what motivates them, the challenges they face, how they manage the personal/private dynamic of blogging about family and what impact mom blogs are having on a global societal level. Finished essays will need to be approximately 2000-4000 words in length. Queries will be accepted through July 15th 2008 and should be no more than 300 words explaining your proposed angle, a brief bio, a link to your blog (or places you blog) and why you feel your work should be included in the anthology. With your query please also include a short (500 words or less) writing sample. Please use a polished creative voice rather than an informal tone in your sample. Review the various categories that are being considered for the anthology and send queries to mamablogger[at]motherverse.com.

Possible Categories

Mama Blogging and…
-multiculturalism / global mothering
-feminism
-race / religion / politics
-making a living from it
-your family’s acceptance (or lack of it) / children’s reaction to it
-social import and reactions of society to mommy bloggers
-flukes and funny incidents
-and your job /career
-connecting to other mothers
-single motherhood
-lesbian motherhood
-and the mainstream media/publishing world

An essay could also combine two or more of these topics. Topics outside those suggested are welcome.

Proposed Global Motherhood Anthology

Looking for mothers who are living across the globe for a proposed anthology/research book on motherhood experiences in countries/cultures/political and religious environments around the world. Looking for mothers (writers or not) who would like to share stories and be part of an exploration of the diversity of motherhood experiences. If you are interested in becoming part of this project please write editor[at]motherverse.com with “Global Motherhood Anthology” in the subject line.

anthology on mothering across cultures

What happens when your child doesn’t speak your native language? Should you invite your German-American in-laws to your Diwali celebration? How can you raise a child with two cultures without fracturing his/her identity? In our increasingly global society, more and more mothers are facing questions such as these.

In order to explore these issues, I’m putting together an anthology of essays by mothers who are raising children across cultural boundaries. This would include writings by mothers from non-Western cultures in the U.S., mothers who've adopted children from abroad; Western mothers in the U.S. married to fathers from different cultures, and mothers living abroad.

Contributors will receive a copy of the book, a discount on additional copies and international exposure in exchange for non-exclusive world rights. Please send essays (1500-3000 words) pasted in the body of an email message to sue kamata (@) msn . com by July 15, 2008.

The Traveling Mamas

Traveling Mamas Anthology

TravelingMamas.com is in search of true uplifting, funny, inspirational, and touching stories with a travel theme for an upcoming anthology series. Possible themes may include family travel, romantic escapes, girlfriend getaways, and solo trips.

We’re looking for stories that inspire us, force us to laugh out loud or make us reach for the tissue box. Bring us into your story by using the five senses. Every story must have a beginning, middle, and end.

Rights:

We are requesting one-time rights. Reprints are acceptable as long as you own the rights.
If your work has been published before we ask that you please send the name of the publication the story appeared and the date it was published with your submission. We will have the right to edit your work.
Submission:

Word count: 300-1000 words.
More than one story may be submitted.
The story can be told in first or third person. You don’t have to be a mom to tell the story.
Deadline is midnight September 1, 2008.
In the body of your email please include your name, address, phone number, and preferred email address. At the bottom of your story please include a brief author bio (no more than 100 words) to be included in the back of the book. If your story is chosen you will be able to revise your bio before publication.
Please send your submissions in the body of an email to anthology@travelingmamas.com (no attachments will be opened).
Compensation:

$50 (Payment upon publication)
A Traveling Mamas travel pack that includes one copy of the book your story appears in.
Please be patient. This is a long process. We will let you know as soon we know if your story has been selected. If you don’t hear from us, we may be holding your story for upcoming books.

Thank you for joining our journey. We look forward to reading your stories.

The Traveling Mamas

Spoonfuls of Stories®

A Storybook Ending for Prospective Children's Book Authors
Cheerios® Launches Next Spoonfuls of Stories® Children's Book Contest
to Give Would-Be Authors the Chance for
Cash Prizes and Publisher Review!

Once upon a time, there was a writer with an idea for the greatest children's book in all the land. She had worked on the story, and dreamed of getting it published for children and families to enjoy. But the publisher lived on an island (Manhattan) far, far away and the waters surrounding the island were filled with many unknowns. So she hid away her children's book idea…until now.

Starting April 16, 2008 and going through July 15, 2008, Cheerios invites previously unpublished adult authors to submit their children's book manuscripts in the second Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories® Children's Book Contest. The book should be suitable for children who are 4 to 8 years old. For a complete list of rules and to submit an entry online, go to www.SpoonfulsofStoriesContest.com. Cheerios will provide cash prizes to up to three winners, and the top winner will have their book evaluated by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing for a potential book deal. A book deal is not guaranteed.

Last year, Cheerios received close to 1,000 entries in the Children's Book Contest, and Shellie Braeuner of Nashville, Tenn., was named the grand prize winner. In addition to her $5,000 prize from Cheerios, Braeuner received a book deal from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. Her winning story, The Great Dog Wash, is being published and will be printed and available in Cheerios boxes in the spring of 2009. The book also will be available in hardcover on bookshelves in the summer of 2009. Two first prize winners, Alison Anderson of Cumberland, Wisc., and Kate Heilman of Chicago, each received $1,000 from Cheerios, and their stories (The Sleepy Song and Theo the T-Rex, respectively) are featured on www.SpoonfulsofStories.com.
"Winning the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories Children's Book Contest has opened up a whole new world for me," said Braeuner. "I've been writing for many years, working on children's stories and novels alike. The publisher piece of the puzzle has always been a bit of a mystery to me, so I was excited to learn about the contest and enter my story. But it was nothing compared to the excitement when I was told I had won and my story got to a publisher's desk. I am honored to have gotten a book deal, and I can't wait to see my words in print and my book in Cheerios boxes and on bookshelves! The whole experience has been wonderful every step of the way.

"Kids need books; the more books — and the more kinds of books — the better," said Ricardo Fernandez, marketing manager for Cheerios. "Supporting up-and-coming authors goes hand-in-hand with our efforts to get high quality books to kids through our Spoonfuls of Stories program. We hope we can help encourage more new children's book authors each year through this contest."

Seeking Submissions

Seeking Submissions from U.S. Women Writers for 3 Proposed Books*

Guidelines also on: encirclepub.com

1.

Women & Poetry: Tips on Writing, Publishing and Teaching
from American Women Poets

Foreword by Robin Merrill, Maine Poets Society President 2006-2007. M.F.A. Stonecoast. With hundreds of poems published, some from her chapbook Laundry & Stories (Moon Pie Press) were featured on Garrison Keillor's “Writers' Almanac.” http://www.robinmerrill.com

Afterword by the editors of Iris Magazine, an award-winning publication of 27 years celebrating and empowering young women through provocative articles, essays, and fiction pieces that are uplifting, inclusive, and literate. http://womenscenter.virginia.edu/coreprograms/iris.html

Markets for women, why women write, time management, using life experience, women's magazines, critique groups, networking, blogs, unique issues women must overcome, lesbian and bisexual writing, formal education, queries and proposals, conference participation, family scheduling, feminist writing, self-publishing, teaching tips, are just a few areas women poets are interested.

Practical, concise, how-to articles with bullets/headings have proven the most helpful. Please avoid writing about “me” and concentrate on what will most help the reader.

2.

Milestones for American Women: Our Defining Passages

Foreword by Carolyn Lesser, Webster University, St. Louis, MO, nonfiction writing faculty; natural science children's books published by Harcourt, Alfred A. Knopf; essayist, poet, photographer, keynote speaker, artist.

Afterword by Dr. Loriene Roy, 2007-2008 President of the American Library Association. Professor, University of Texas at Austin, founder of "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a national reading club for Native American children.

Please consider sharing the important milestones, life changing events, transitions in your life--material that would broadly fit the “Women's Studies” genre that is highly readable, moving and relatable. There are the passages that occur to us (for example, losing a loved one, having to relocate) and then the passages we choose (such as getting a degree in mid-life, adopting a child). Please focus on those pivotal moments and why they were milestones for you.

This book celebrates our passages as women, from one moment into another, from one door to the next. Often it is after the navigation, that in reflection, we see that some of the most difficult are the ones we have learned the most and have had lasting effects as well on those around us.

Guidelines for Women and Poetry and/or Milestones for American Women:

Step 1: send your proposed topics before writing articles to avoid duplication; proposed topics must be accompanied by a 65-70 word bio with your present position, location, relevant publications, career highlights for the contributor page; please use POETS or MILESTONES as the subject line to smallwood@tm.net

Step 2:(if your topics are approved): deadline for submissions (by e-mail only) is May 30, 2008. Again, please use POETS or MILESTONES in the subject line; send to either Cynthia at brackett-vincent@encirclepub.com; or Carol at smallwood@tm.net in a Word document (.doc format only) using 12-point font.

Article specifics: word total for 1-2 articles based on your experience: 1,900 minimum; maximum 2,100. Two articles preferred. If submitting two articles, please break them up fairly evenly in word count.

No previously published or simultaneously submitted material. Contributors must be reside in the U.S. Books such as this can typically take up to a year to compile. Contributors receive a complimentary copy and contributor's discount on additional copies.

Co-editor Cynthia Brackett-Vincent is publisher/editor of the esteemed Aurorean poetry journal; poetry instructor; award-winning poet; author of The 95 Poems chapbook (2005) and contributor to Educators as Writers: Publishing for Personal and Professional Development. In 2007, her poems received a citation, honorable mention and second place in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, New England Writers and Maine Poets Society competitions.

Co-editor, Carol Smallwood has written, co-authored, and edited 19 books such as Educators as Writers for Scarecrow, Libraries Unlimited. An award-winning writer, her work has appeared in English Journal, Clackamas Literary Review, Iris, The Writer's Chronicle, and several others including anthologies; chapbook, Pudding House 2008; Educators as Writers, Peter Lang 2006.

3.

Women Writing on Family: Writing, Publishing, and Teaching Tips by US Women Writers

Foreword: Robbi Hess, Journalist, co-author, Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names (Penguin Books); Editor, Byline Magazine

Afterword: Suzanne Bunkers, Professor of English, Minnesota State University, editor of Diaries of Girls and Women: a Midwestern American Sampler (University of Wisconsin Press).

This is a book not just on writing but tips for women writing about family. Possible subject areas you might address include: markets; why women write about family; using life experience; critique groups; networking; blogs; unique issues women must overcome; formal education; queries and proposals; conference participation; family scheduling; self-publishing; teaching tips; family in creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, novels.

Practical, concise, how-to articles with bullets/headings have proven the most helpful to readers. Please avoid writing about “me” and concentrate on what will help the reader.

Word total for 1-2 articles based on your experience:
1,900 minimum; maximum 2,100. Two articles preferred.
If submitting 2, please break them up fairly evenly in word count.

No previously published or simultaneously submitted material, please; no co-authored.

Deadline: May 30, 2008

Contributors receive a complimentary copy and contributor's discount on additional copies. It is common for compilation of an anthology to take upwards of a year, but we will be in touch with updates on securing a publisher.

Editor Carol Smallwood has written, co-authored, and edited 19 books such as Educators as Writers for Peter Lang, Scarecrow, Libraries Unlimited. Her work has appeared in English Journal, Clackamas Literary Review, Michigan Feminist Studies, The Detroit News, several others including anthologies; On the Way to Wendy's Pudding House 2008; a co-edited anthology is with an agent.

Please send your topics first before writing (to avoid possible duplication) along with brief descriptions and 65-70 word bio with your present position, relevant publications, awards or honors. Use FAMILY for the subject line and submit to Carol at smallwood@tm.net

*In our experience, most publishers return rights to individual contributors variously after publication. However, because we are still seeking a publisher, we cannot speak to those rights specifically at this time. Contributors will be asked to sign a release form from the publisher and therefore will be have the opportunity to agree to the details of the contract or withdraw one's work at that time.

"Brewing up more Cup of Comforts"

A Cup of Comfort for New Mothers

Few experiences bring forth as many anxieties, blessings, challenges, wonders, and changes as having a baby whether it's your first child or fifth, your birth child or adopted child. And nothing is as miraculous as giving birth to or witnessing the birth of your baby. This heartwarming anthology will be filled with birth stories and newborn homecoming stories as well as a wide range of stories about the various experiences, emotions, and concerns involved in adding a new baby to one's life and family. Potential topics include but are not limited to: nursing (or not), caring for a newborn, bonding/falling in love with infant, lack of sleep, relationship with spouse, how siblings respond, returning to work, balancing responsibilities, post-partum depression, self transformation, unexpected joys, life lessons, small miracles, etc. The majority of the stories will be about birth children, but the book will likely include a couple adoptive stories as well. Likewise, most of the stories will be written from the new mother's perspective, but we are open to including a few stories written from the spouse's or a very close family member's perspective. All stories will be uplifting and positive, no matter how difficult the situation portrayed in the story might be. We do not want stories that simply recount misfortunes and sorrows and that do not clearly reveal a positive outcome or redeeming result (silver lining).

New Mothers submission deadline: May 15, 2008 (last call)

A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families

The primary purpose of this book is to celebrate adoptive families and to recognize the extraordinary and challenging experiences unique to chosen children and their adoptive families. We are most interested in stories written by adult adopted children and their adoptive parents and siblings, but the book will likely include some stories written by members of the extended adoptive family (i.e. grandparent) and birth family members. Virtually any topic relevant to adopted children and their adoptive parents is acceptable as long as it is authentic, positive, insightful, and uplifting or inspiring. We do not want heartbreaking stories about adoptive or birth families that regret the adoption. All of the stories in this collection must reveal a positive aspect of adoption and must bring comfort, joy, or inspiration to those who have been adopted and/or to the families who adopted them no matter how difficult the experience and emotions portrayed in the story might be.

Adoptive Families submission deadline: June 15, 2008

A Cup of Comfort for Parents of Special Needs

For this very special collection, we seek uplifting true stories about the ins and outs, ups and downs, blessing and challenges of parenting children with special needs. The stories will cover children of all ages (birth to adult) and a wide range of developmental, physical, and mental delays/disabilities. No matter how difficult the experiences/emotions conveyed in a story might be (we want them to be authentic, after all), the story must reveal a positive aspect, resolution, or outcome and must be of comfort to parents of children with special needs. Stories may be serious, humorous, insightful, heartwarming, or inspiring. The majority of the stories will be written by parents of children with special needs; we will also consider stories written by adult children with special needs. (No articles or commentaries by clinicians, please.)

Special Needs Children submission deadline: September 15, 2008

Switchback

Switchback, a publication of the MFA of the University of San Francisco is looking for submissions.

Eighth Issue: "Stillness vs. Frenzy"
The editors of Switchback are now accepting submissions for our eighth issue. The theme is Stillness vs. Frenzy. Poetry and prose submissions are not required to address the theme. We continue to seek work from writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, writing on any topic imaginable.

How do action and inaction work in narrative? In art? Art and literature often contain adventure or a fixed setting, like home. Inner monologue could be stillness and frenzy: a still body with an ever-moving train of thought (or even beating heart, live inner-workings). What can come of something entirely static or entirely frenetic? Or both at once?

Hitchcock said "the terror is not in the bang, but in the anticipation of it." Submissions might address the topic of "Stillness vs. Frenzy" as it applies to literature and the creative process. Switchback encourages writers to submit their own thoughts on this topic using whichever perspective they choose.

The deadline for submissions is April 4th, 2008.

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

We prefer pieces that have not been previously published. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, although please inform us if you have sent your piece elsewhere. Due to the online nature of the magazine, shorter pieces are preferred (2,000 words or less), although longer pieces of exceptional writing will also be considered.

All critical essays must address the topic "Stillness vs. Frenzy" and be less than 2,000 words. Works in other genres are not required to address the topic.

Submissions should be sent in Microsoft Word format (preferred) or an RTF format. We will accept three poems per writer or a maximum of five pages of poetry, or one fiction, nonfiction or critical essay submission per writer. In the subject line write the genre (fiction, nonfiction, critical essay or poetry) and the title of your piece, i.e., FICTION: (Insert Your Fictional Title). Send your submission(s), one piece per email, to: submissions at swback dot com. (You may use the links at the bottom of this page.)

Due to the process of blind selection, include your name in the email, but not in the piece itself.

The eighth issue will be released in Summer/Fall 2008.

SWITCHBACK is a publication of the Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program of the University of San Francisco, Aaron Shurin, Director.

SWITCHBACK is a forum for the writers of USF's MFA community, including alumni, students, and faculty, as well as the wider literary community, in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and critical essays.

We look forward to reading your work.

Sincerely,

The SWITCHBACK Editorial Staff

Use these links to submit by email: fiction ; nonfiction ; critical essay ; poetry

life, love and change in our 40s

Call for submissions – help create the first anthology about
life, love and change in our 40s

• Are you a 40-something woman?
• Do you have something to say about life in your 40s?
• Do you want to be part of a talented, interesting group of women across the country who are making a difference?

We are publishing an anthology of personal essays, currently called Laugh Lines, by women from a variety of backgrounds. In this book, 40-something women tell it straight about what it means to be in your 40s. They talk openly and honestly about work and family, sex and divorce, new confidences and lingering doubts. This anthology will consist of 25-30 personal essays combined into one print title for publication in Fall 2008.

Brief Synopsis
Turning 40 is a milestone for women. We spent our 20s going to college, and perhaps graduate school, launching our careers and perhaps our marriage. We spent our 30s building our careers, achieving a track record, and perhaps starting a family. What are the 40s all about?

The contributors will answer:
What is a major experience, realization or change that I have gone through in my 40s, and what have I learned from it? (themes include bodies, work, relationships, children, self-image, priorities, parents and following your passion. Other topic ideas welcomed.)

The Details
Deadline
Submissions are open until May 15, 2008, and the final acceptances will be communicated by June 1, 2008. Submissions should be sent to molly_rosen@yahoo.com Please put Laugh Lines Submission in the subject line. We will send a reply email to confirm receipt.

Audience
The audience is women aged 31-50 who will be inspired by other women’s stories, and will appreciate getting a better understanding of “what’s happening” or “what comes next.”

Project Specifications/Development Schedule: All essays will be written in the first person, with an honest, informal tone. Each will be 1600-2000 words (about 4-5 pages, double-spaced). Each contributor will title the essay, and submit a short (1 paragraph) bio. The book will consist of 25-30 essays total.

Contributors: The contributors will come from a range of backgrounds and professions. Some will be professional writers, many will not. All will be interesting women who have something to say about life in their 40s. By sending in a submission you are agreeing to your work being edited and also to it being published in the new anthology. If your essay is not chosen for the anthology, you will retain all copyrights to publish.

Compensation: This is a labor of love, a project to bring together a fantastic network of women to leave a legacy for others. Money from book sales will first be used to recoup expenses, including a launch party for the contributors to promote connection among this fabulous network of women. Net proceeds will be donated to a not-for-profit organization supporting access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer.

Divorce is Rad!

Call for Submissions

Pay: $100+ on acceptance of manuscript

Length: 2,000-4,000 words

You are welcome to send a fully-written essay, but a query with a 1-2 paragraph proposal is also fine. Make sure to include a bio, other publishing credits (and a writing sample, if you're not sending a complete piece.

Please email queries and submissions to: candace.walsh@gmail.com.

Project Overview:

Divorce needs a makeover. So many women and children are trapped in unhappy marriages just because they can't get past the perception that divorce is the devil. Sure, it's not what we wish for when we walk down the aisle (whether we wear a white gown or a scarlet shift)but if it's the escape hatch into our best life, it should have more romise around it. It should hold more of a space for the positive.

Divorce is Rad!will be a spicy, bracing, riveting selection of essays from women from all walks of life. The words within will make you laugh, cry, nod your head, and shake your fist. The unifying thread is,“I got divorced, and it rocked my world.You can't take the deepest core of grief and loss away from something that has its unavoidable traumatic component, but divorce can lose the shame/fear/stigma frosting on its sometimes bitter cake. Because you know what? A lot of those bites are surprisingly sweet.

Divorce is Rad! is about divorce dusted off, reviewed, and spit-shined for our generation's post-taboo, post-seventies-casual, post- pseudo “family values. It's the sparkling shore for the woman who been standing on the gangplank of a fatally becalmed boat. It's the kind, warm current that leads her to that shore, and the beach towel and picnic lunch that awaits her when she gets solid ground under her feet.

www.marrit.info

ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH ON MOTHERING AND DEMETER PRESS

POETRY

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

*THEME: MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS

DEADLINE: MAY 1, 2008

Prizes of $500 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd place, and $200 for 3rd place, will be awarded for poems, creative non-fiction, and photography on the theme of Mother and Daughters. The winning works in all categories, as well as a selection of honorable mention contest entries, will be published in JARM, Journal of the Association of Research on Mothering, special issue on Mother and Daughters in October 2008. All works will be considered for publication in the journal and subsequently in a literary anthology to be published by Demeter Press in honor of Mother’s Day, May 2009. Prizes in each category will be announced in August 2008 and awarded at the ARM Conference, October 24-26, 2008.

Poets whose works are included in the issue will celebrate the launch of the issue with readings at a Literary Gala Event as part of the conference.

Guidelines:

Poetry: Submit up to three unpublished poems with $20.00 CAD entry fee ($3 for each additional poem).

Creative Non-Fiction: Entries should be short literary memoir, autobiography, lyric essay 300-1,000 words max. One submission only with $20.00 ($3 for each additional entry).

Photography: Black and white photographs should be submitted as 8” x 10” prints and mailed in hard copy to the ARM/Demeter Press office. *Contest participants outside of Canada and the U.S may email an electronic photo submission to arm@yorku.ca. Please be sure to include all required information with your submission. Submit up to three submissions ($3.00 for each additional entry).

Do not include name or identification on entries; this information should be provided on the entry form. Send entries for poetry and creative non-fiction by email to arm@yorku.ca. Photography submissions should be sent be regular mail to the ARM/Demeter Press office (address and payment information below). Clearly identify your entry with a subject heading: Poetry Contest or Creative Non-Fiction Contest or Photography Contest. All submissions (Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, Photography) must be accompanied by an entry form. For prose and poetry entries, send in one word attachment. Entries that include separate files for each poem or prose entry will not be considered. Once your payment and entry has been filed, acknowledgment of your contest entry will be made by email.

Deadline:

Deadline: May 15, 2008 Judges TBA

Additional Photo Contest Rules and Regulations:

*By submitting the photo(s) you confirm that you are the exclusive rights holder of the photo(s). Model releases (i.e., permission of people in the photograph) are the responsibility of the entrant and must be available in the event that the photo is a winner.

Photographers of selected photos will retain their rights after publication with the understanding that ARM and Demeter Press can reprint in future publications without payment or royalty fees. ARM/Demeter Press will hold first time North American publication rights. Selected photos may be included in a future ARM/Demeter Press publication, promotional materials, and/or exhibitions.

Photos that have been previously published or won an award are not eligible.

Submitted photos and entries cannot be returned.

Demeter Press and ARM are not responsible for lost or delayed entries, or entries damaged in transit.

Photographs will be judged on creativity and excellence and how they best capture the contest theme. Judging decisions are final.

Payment Information:

Payment can be made by credit card (Visa or Mastercard) using forms available on our website at: http://www.yorku.ca/arm/creditcard.html

Please fax form to 416-736-5766 or email to arm@yorku.ca.

Alternately you can send your forms and payment by cheque or money order to our offices at

ARM/Demeter Press

Rm 726 Atkinson, York University

4700 Keele St.

Toronto, ON M3J 1P3.

**Entry form and payment must accompany all submissions.

Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)
Demeter Press
726 Atkinson, York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON,
Canada, M3J 1P3
416-736-2100 x60366 (fax) 416-736-5766
arm@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm

Glimmer Train Family Matters

Guidelines for the FAMILY MATTERS category:
We are interested in reading your original, unpublished short stories about family!

We don’t publish stories for children, I’m sorry.
It's fine to submit more than one story or to submit the same story to different categories.
When we accept a story for publication, we are purchasing first-publication rights. (After we've published it, you can include it in your own collection.)

To make a submission: Please send your work via our new online submission procedure.
It’s easy, will save you postage and paper, and is much easier on the environment.
Just click the yellow Submissions button above to get started!

Dates:
The category will be open to submissions for one full month, from the first day through
midnight (Pacific time) of the last day of the month. Results will be posted at www.glimmertrain.org.

January. Results will be posted on April 30.
April. Results will be posted on July 31.
July. Results will be posted on October 31.
October. Results will be posted on January 31.

Reading fee:

$15 per story.

Prizes:

1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue.
2nd-place: $500
3rd-place:$300

Other considerations:

Open to all writers.
Stories–about family–not to exceed 12,000 words.(No minimum, though it's rare for a piece under 500 words to read as a full story.)
This category has stimulated lots of questions about fiction/non-fiction/creative non-fiction, since many people have significant real-life stories they want to write. It seems to us that a substantial proportion of fiction submissions are heavily rooted in actual experience, which is entirely fine with us, but we do want stories to READ like fiction and anything we publish is presented as fiction. (Also, sticking too tightly to "truth" can limit the larger truth that fiction is able to reveal.) I would certainly recommend changing details that would allow the real-life people to say, Hey, that character is--without a doubt--me. I hope that makes sense.

We look forward to reading your work!

Women Writing on Family: Writing, Publishing, and Teaching Tips by U.S. Women Writers

Seeking submissions for a book about women writing about family....

Foreword: Robbi Hess, Journalist, co-author, Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names (Penguin Books); Editor, Byline Magazine

Afterword: Suzanne Bunkers, Professor of English, Minnesota State University, editor of Diaries of Girls and Women: a Midwestern American Sampler (University of Wisconsin Press).

This is a book not just on writing but tips for women writing about family. Possible subject areas you might address include: Markets; why women write about family; using life experience; critique groups; networking; blogs; unique issues women must overcome; formal education; queries and proposals; conference participation; family scheduling; self-publishing; teaching tips; family in creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, novels.

Practical, concise, how-to articles with bullets/headings have proven the most helpful to readers. Please avoid writing about "me" and concentrate on what will help the reader.

Word total for 1-2 articles based on your experience:
1,900 minimum; maximum 2,100. Two articles preferred.

If submitting 2, please break them up fairly evenly in word count.

No previously published or simultaneously submitted material, please.

Deadline: February 28, 2008

Contributors receive a complimentary copy and contributor's discount on additional copies. It is common for compilation of an anthology to take upwards of a year, but we will be in touch with updates on securing a publisher.

Co-Editor Rachael Hanel is a freelance writer and college instructor in Madison Lake, MN. The first chapter of her memoir was named runner-up for the 2006 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction at the Bellingham Review and appears in the Spring 2007 issue. The chapter was also a semifinalist for the 2006 Gulf Coast Creative Nonfiction Award. She teaches personal essay and editing. Her website is www.rachaelhanel.com

Co-Editor Carol Smallwood has written, co-authored, and edited 18 books such as Michigan Authors, for Scarecrow, Libraries Unlimited. Her work has appeared in English Journal, Clackamas Literary Review, Phoebe, The Writer's Chronicle, The Detroit News, several others including anthologies; she's in Who's Who of American Women. A chapbook is forthcoming from Pudding House; a co-edited anthology is with an agent. A recent book is
http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?vID=68601&vLang=E&vHR=1&vUR=2&vUUR=1

Please send your topics first before writing (to avoid possible duplication) along with brief descriptions and 65-70 word bio with your present position, relevant publications, awards or honors. Use FAMILY for the subject line and submit to Rachael at rachael_hanel@yahoo.com

*In our experience, most publishers return rights to individual contributors variously after publication. However, because we am still seeking a publisher, we cannot speak to those rights specifically at this time. Contributors will be asked to sign a release form from the publisher and therefore will be have the opportunity to agree to the details of the contract or withdraw one's work at that time.

A Wild Ride

Developed out of necessity, the Web site A Wild Ride helps and supports parents whose children require more than "normal" children. These parents are forced to deal with stress that most people can't comprehend. They are stretched to their limits of patience, endurance, ability, and sometimes resources and they feel anxious, afraid, isolated and confused. Their days are unpredictable at every turn. For them, parenting is A Wild Ride, where they experience extreme ups and downs as they hold on tight.

Our Web site/Blog is about sharing the journey with others on a similar path, so parents – when you feel you can’t take one more meltdown, sit back, relax, and click on www.awildride.net where we:

Share Stories
Offer Strategies
Provide Resources
Answer Questions
Announcing a writing contest to celebrate our first birthday as we prepare for ringing in the New Year.

Deadline: January 5, 2008

Our theme for 2008: What to Expect When Parenting Isn’t What You Expected?™

Categories:

Story
Strategies
Resources
As I See It (Designed for family members, friends, therapists, other professionals to share your own suggestions in support of white-knuckled parents.)
See our site for more details.
http://www.awildride.net/index11.

WOW! Women on Writing

We are an ezine that promotes communication between women writers, authors, editors, agents, publishers and readers. We are currently seeking freelance writers for our upcoming editorial schedule and themes. Please visit: http://wow-womenonwriting.com to get the flavor of our columns and features.

Writing Schedule and Themes for WOW! Women On Writing:

Jan. 2008 - Focus on Readers: book reviews, author interviews, how to make a freelance living at writing book reviews, book clubs, literary guilds, author interviews

Feb. 2008 - The Romance issue: Writing for romance markets, how to craft romantic scenes, book reviews, author interviews.

Mar. 2008 - Small Presses: Focus on how small presses create buzz, small press profiles, author stories about their experience with small presses.

Apr. 2008 - Big Publishing Houses: focus on traditional publishing, editor interviews, crafting a query letter or book proposal, trends in publishing.

May 2008 - Freelance Union: how to make a living as a freelance writer, copywriters, technical writers, book doctors, legal writing.

Our Columns pay a flat rate of $50-$75.
Feature articles pay a flat rate of $150.
Feature interviews pay a flat rate of $75.

Please visit our Contact Page for complete writer's guidelines and contact email addresses for the editorial department.

We urge you to visit WOW! Women On Writing and view our previously published material.

NOTES: Get your submissions in as soon as possible. Spaces fill up fast. We also appreciate photographs to illustrate the article, or at least the writer's portrait. We are a highly visual online magazine.

Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards,

Editors: WOW! Women On Writing and our entire staff

Who’s Your Mama: The Voices of Unsung Women and Mothers

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Who’s Your Mama: The Voices of Unsung Women and Mothers
http://www.yvonnebynoe.com/Whos-Your-Mama.html

Looking for women writers in the U.S. who are mothers, trying to become mothers and who are childless by choice or circumstance

There are so many books published about the motherhood experiences of affluent, married, White women, books that often revolve around the "mommy wars," the raging debate between mothers who work and those who stay at home. The fact that this small demographic is represented in the media as the face of U.S. motherhood has effectively removed the voices and stories of the true majority of mothers from the public dialogue.

The true majority includes mothers who are: women of color, low and middle income, single, bisexual or lesbian.

This anthology proposes to gather women’s writings about motherhood that addresses race, class, sexuality, identity and intimate partnership. We have chosen to use the words women and motherhood, but it’s being used to focus on the female experience of parenting under patriarchy, not to exclusively define it.

Gen-X/Hip Hop generation women, those born between 1965 and 1984, grew up in the aftermath of social and political revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s that sought to re-define marriage, sexuality and motherhood. While the primary societal messages continue to trumpet traditional values and heterosexual marriage as the preferred norm, on the ground,
women are actively engaged in crafting identities and family structures (including remaining single and/or childless) that speak practically to their personal beliefs, intimate relationships and economic realities.

Demographically, this generation of mothers looks different from its predecessors. Many did not even have children until they were 25 years old or older and on average they are having only two children. Therefore in comparison to their mothers and grandmothers they are older and have fewer children to look after. Having come of age in the 1980s and 1990s these women also grew up taking feminism (and the benefits it bestowed) as a given. For Gen-X and Hip Hop generation women, they believe that they can choose to raise healthy happy children and still be true to themselves.

Unlike previous generations, Gen-X women are represented by a diversity of contexts for motherhood that include heterosexual marriages, single parenting, committed partnership and gay marriage. Furthermore we recognize that the ability of a woman to have the option to be a working mother or a stay at home mother is frequently dependent on her socio-economic standing as demonstrated by her access to informational and financial resources, nearby, reliable and affordable child care and good fortune to work in a flexible work environment.

Furthermore, more women are consciously choosing not to have children and it is necessary to understand the remaining societal costs or the unexpected freedoms that are the consequence of choosing to remain childless. Lastly, every mother was someone before she had children. Therefore while motherhood is a significant life event, this book
wants to examine how women develop other aspects of themselves alongside their identities as mothers, including their careers, friendships (particularly with other women), sexual personas, intimate relationships, familial and community bonds.

Many Gen-X women, although they were brought up and encouraged to "have it all" have a thorny relationship with feminism. Many understand that the freedoms that they take for granted, including the right to: work in nontraditional jobs; receive equal work for equal and; have reproductive choice were the result of feminist agitation.

Nevertheless while many young women eagerly embrace the feminist label, far more equate feminism with angry, unattractive, affluent, man-hating, White women and do not believe that feminism represents their perspectives on religion, sexuality, culture, class or race. We are interested in ascertaining whether a woman choosing to become a mother or not is influenced by her identification with feminism (even if that identification is oppositional) and its perceived tenets, how does a woman’s acceptance (or rejection) of feminism or its principles inform her mothering or extend her focus on social and political issues such as parental leave, affordable childcare, court enforced child support, etc?.

We are seeking honest essays written in the first-person from Gen X/Hip Hop generation women of all classes, races, sexualities and religions. Submissions from emerging as well as established writers, activists, scholars and everyday women will be accepted. The personal narrative should record how your decision about motherhood empowered you and in some way made you reconsider a way of being, a personal truth, political ideology or cultural norm or community standard that you have never previously questioned. Additionally, we are interested in essays that explore how new definitions of motherhood and female empowerment are pushing women toward new thinking around social and political change. We welcome and will consider new ideas in addition to the topics suggested below.

the emotional and financial costs of motherhood
mothering and sexual identity
how becoming a mother changes your politics
daycare and childcare
single motherhood
lesbian or bisexual mothering
motherhood and marriage/committed partnership
gender and care of the children
health care and motherhood
motherhood and poverty
what does having it all really mean?
what makes a feminist mother different from others?
balancing motherhood and work
discrimination against mothers in the workplace
negotiating societal expectations about motherhood
race, class and motherhood
raising bi-racial children or children of a different race
childless because you do not want children
childless because you do not have a committed partner (and you do
not want to be a single mom)
childless because you believe that having a child would adversely
affect your career or finances
infertility
adoptive mothers/guardians/foster parents
incarcerated mothers

DEADLINE: February 1, 2008
WORD COUNT/PAGE LIMITS: Personal Narratives - 20 pages/5000 words.
FORMAT: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your address, phone number, email address, and a short bio on the last page. No simultaneous submissions. Previously published essays will be considered if the writer owns the copyright. Essays will not be returned. Essays will not be published without the writer's consent.

-SUBMITTING: Electronic submissions are preferred. Send essay electronically as a Word format file (with .doc extension) to Yvonne(at)YvonneBynoe.com (replace (at) with @). Write "Motherhood Anthology" in the subject line. If email is not possible, mail two (2) copies of the essay to Yvonne Bynoe at PO Box 14068, Washington, DC 20044 attn: Motherhood Anthology.Please direct any inquiries to info(at)yvonnebynoe.com (replace (at) with @).

EDITOR:
Yvonne Bynoe is a Senior Fellow at the Future Focus 2020 Center at Wake Forest University and the author of Stand & Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture and the Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture.

PUBLISHER: Soft Skull Press (New York)
REPLY: Please allow until March 1, 2008 for a response. If you have not received a response by then, please assume your essay has not been selected. It is not possible to reply to every submission personally.

Mama Focus Photo Contest!

Mamazine has sent out a call for photos....

We know you have a lot of adorable photos of your kids. I currently have 12,571 photos in my iPhoto and probably 11,491 of those are of my kids. Well, now it's time to shine a little light on you, Mama. And not just the smiley, huggy, fun aspects either. The whole picture. The whole person. So come out from behind the lens, stop dodging the camera, and show us your stuff in the Mama Focus photo contest.

In our Mama Focus photo contest, we challenge you to get artsy, take a self-portrait, give your kids the camera and let them do a mama photo shoot. We don't care how you get the picture, as long as you (mama) are the focus (the photo's actual technical focus is optional). We hope to see photos that show us what modern motherhood can be like: the ugly and the beautiful. We are looking for pictures with a fresh, unique perspective or that capture a moment, convey a feeling, or tell a story. We want interesting and unexpected shots that give us a peek into real mamahood.

Some themes you might choose to explore (but anything goes!): Self & Solitude, Work & Play, Sleep (or lack thereof) & Dreams, Nature & Nurture.

The Mama Focus contest is sponsored by mamazine.com, Picture This, and The Little Zygote That Could. The contest starts Thursday, November 1, 2007, and ends Friday, November 30, 2007. Winners will be announced Friday, December 7, 2007.

go to mamazine.com for details.

More from Moms Rising...

MomsRising wants you to share your story about the challenges of raising children in our country....

My daughter still remembers her favorite Halloween costume at age six--purple balloons pinned all over her body to make her look like a bunch of grapes. That was the first year she wasn't afraid of the Halloween hoopla.

She's in high school now, and pulls together her own costumes. But since the season of ghosts and goblins has come around again, I started thinking about what's really scary for Moms in America--scary all year long because of the daily parenting hardships and dangers that are very real and haunt us. What is it about our country's treatment of families that can make it scary to raise a child?

Help MomsRising.org collect real life stories for our MomsVote 08 campaign about how scary it is to raise a child without adequate family-friendly policies. We've found that sharing true stories about the hurdles we face with parenting--from overly expensive healthcare and childcare, to a lack of time with children when they are born or sick--bring the issues to life better than any fact sheet could. Reporters frequently ask for personal stories that exemplify the issues for which MomsRising is advocating. Legislators who are advancing bills to help families often use our stories to center the policy debates on the lives of real people.

Do you have a scary story to share about the hurdles you've faced raising children? Please share your story on our blog at http://www.momsrising.org/node/593

Church Moms

Taken From Leslie Morgan Steiner's "On Balance" this morning:
Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans left parish ministry in 2002. She is currently a freelance writer, columnist, and supply priest living in Glenmoore, Penn., with her family. One of her projects is editing a collection of cautionary, inspiring, humorous, and candid "stories from the sanctuary" about the lives of female clergy. Are you an ordained woman-on call 24/7, trying to find time for your spouse, kids and maybe even a monthly manicure? Are you expected to give awesome pastoral care, preach sermons that convert hundreds, have kids who are role models for the entire youth group and a "perfect" marriage? She would love to hear your story at Bellettreliz@hotmail.com.

New webzine seeking submissions

Carol Ungar is in the process of setting up a webzine that will feature poetry, creative non fiction, fiction and visual arts that explore different aspects of female Jewish identity from a traditional angle---no Rabbi bashing please. Sorry, no pay but hopefully some exposure. Carol is interested in edgy high quality original material, doesn't mind reprints at this point which will leave the reader with an expanded appreciation of the richness of the Jewish traditon.
Email Carol at tzirelchana@yahoo.com Thanks in advance.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Are you a writer longing to be discovered? Submit your manuscript for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It’s the perfect opportunity to become the next great novelist: the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard.
Check out the website for details.

Thereby Hangs a Tale

Thereby Hangs a Tale is currently accepting submissions for its fourth print issue, due out in fall 2008. Each issue of Thereby Hangs a Tale explores the stories that form around a single word. For this issue, the word is TASTE. As always, the interpretation is up to the writer! We accept fiction, non-fiction, and essays up to 2,000 words. The deadline is February 15, 2008. For more info and details about submissions, go to www.therebyhangsatale.com

MotherVerse

MotherVerse, a magazine dedicated to the biological, cultural, psychological, and universal state of motherhood has created a new format for mothers:

You don’t have to be a writer or have your own blog to get your voice heard on the internet. MotherVerse wants you to Mother Out Loud right here. We think ALL moms should have the right to speak up, no matter where you are on the globe..no matter who you are or what you do.

So get your voice out there and send us a short (500 words or less) statement on what it is like to mother in your corner of the globe. We have included little ‘interview guide’ if you need a little guidance, but please feel free to go your own direction. We want to hear what you’re thinking about, what you’ve been working on, how the heck you make it day to day, what you love, what you don’t and what you think the world needs to hear. Or, hey, just tell us what’s going on in your living room right now. It doesn’t have to be spectacular, just honest and yours (ok and spellchecked too). If we deem it blog friendly we’ll post it along with your name (aliases are ok), region, photos, and any website link you may have.

Submit your words and any photos you would like included to submissions@motherverse.com with Mothering Out Loud in the subject line. We’ll let you know as soon as it goes up and you can start bragging to your friends. (just a little note, we will assume if you send it you want it published..you will maintain rights to your own work but by submitting it you give us the right to publish it on the blog asap, and, of course, we reserve the right to not publish your work if we so choose).

A Cup of Comfort

Six Great Publishing Opportunities for Personal Stories in the following categories:

Loved Ones of People with Alzheimers (last call)
Divorced Women (deadline extended)
Breast Cancer Survivors (with Redbook Magazine, deadline extended)
Military Families (new)
New Mothers (new)
Adoptive Families (new)

The bestselling A Cup of Comfort book series is now seeking submissions for these six new anthologies. Stories must be true, original, positive, narrative essays (creation nonfiction), and 1,000-2,000 words. Entrants pay no fees. Writers' guidelines: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/share.htm.

The WAHM Magazine

Thanks to Erika Dreifus of The Practicing Writer for the latest tip:

WAHM, the new, interactive, content-driven, virtual on-line magazine for work-at-home parents is coming in January 2008! We're getting ready to launch this innovative approach to providing work-at-home parents with the information they need and want. The WAHMmagazine is a forum and resource for those who currently are or have been full-time or part-time work-at-home-parents. WAHM is designed to disseminate information about the whole enchilada of being a work-at-home parent.

Department features include:

Voices—a featured interview with a work-at-home parent, ideally a well-recognized figure

The Nitty-Gritty—a section devoted to work-at-home business issues
Parenting—well...duh.

Relationships—these need nurturing

My Time—a section devoted to relaxation, rejuvenation and personal time

Health and Fitness—because sometimes our own health and fitness needs get neglected.

Stories from the Trenches—a section devoted to creative non-fiction and fiction that relates to being a work-at-home parent …
got to The WAHM Magazine for submission guidelines.

Dreaming About Water, a collection of personal essays and practical advice by and for women living with diabetes

Dreaming About Water.
Amy Mercer (LM blog editor) and Violeta Garcia-Mendoza (Lm Literary Reflections co-editor) are seeking personal essay submissions from women writers for their upcoming collection.

Essays should fall between 1,500 and 3,000 words and explore an aspect of living with diabetes.

The collection will cover any and all aspects of living with diabetes: from diagnosis to aging gracefully. Other possible essay topics may include:

Diagnosis
Growing up with diabetes
Dating with diabetes
Diabetes at college/leaving home
Diabetes & relationships with food
Finding the Perfect Doctor
Wedding planning/marriage with diabetes
Diabetes in the workplace
Traveling with diabetes
Starting a Family (either through pregnancy and/or adoption) with
diabetes
Gestational diabetes
Parenting and diabetes
Dealing with complications/ Staying healthy with diabetes
Type 2 diabetes

Our goal is to provide diabetic women- type 1 and type 2- with a place of community while they navigate the various stages of their lives, and their diabetes.

We welcome you to submit one or more essays. For more information, or to submit, please write mercermendoza@gmail.com.

Hero Series call for true stories

Adams Media is publishing a new anthology (book) series featuring uplifting true stories about the experiences and relationships that inspire and enrich our lives—namely those with our mothers, our fathers, and our teachers (also mother-figures, father-figures, and mentors). These slice-of-life stories will be written by people from all walks of life and provide unique personal insights into powerful universal truths, as well as honor the "everyday hero" in their lives. Each anthology in the series will be divided to highlight the variety of ways mothers, teachers, and fathers go beyond the call of duty to heroism.

Submission Deadline: SEPTEMBER 5, 2007

For detailed guidelines, please review:

"Hero Series Guidelines" on Literary Cottage Agency.

Christian Science Monitor

The Home Forum section of the Christian Science Monitor is looking for, "upbeat, personal essays" from 300-900 words on parenting, travel, home, family and food. Payment ranges from $75-160, paid upon publication. All submissions should be sent via email in a microsoft attachment. See writing guidelines.

Call for Submissions - Poetry

"Photographer Elisha Rain & poet/writer Kelli Russell Agodon are joining together to create an anthology that speaks to being a mother in this current world. We are looking for poems exploring all areas of pregnancy, birth, and any aspects of being a mother. We are very open to all motherhood content and themes, but want poems that are powerful, truthful, thought-provoking, and/or thoughtful."

Send no more than 4 poems cut & pasted into the text of the email to:
motherhoodanthology (at) excite.com -- replace (at) with @

For more information, go to their website.

Call for Submissions: Futuristic Motherhood

Mama Specific Productions is seeking submissions of speculative fiction stories about the future of motherhood, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery and any sub-genres. The theme is motherhood in the future. Some things to prompt or give you ideas to start with: What do you imagine the function of motherhood to be? How do you think the image of motherhood will change? How do you think the image of motherhood will stay the same? What possible customs, norms or laws will be in place in the future that would have an impact on changing or affecting mothers? How will science and technology affect pregnancy, birth, and child rearing? How might full social equality affect childcare in the home and workplace? How does a lack of social equality in a highly technological society affect pregnancy, birth, and childcare? How about in a future culture with a highly evolved social order but low technology?

Submission deadline: September 15, 2007.

Call for Submissions: Cup of Comfort

Adams Media is seeking submissions for an upcoming Cup of Comfort anthology called "A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women." From their web site:

Divorce in the twenty-first century should come with an instruction manual, a release valve, and a support system. This anthology will serve essentially those three purposes, in the form of comforting, insightful, and inspirational stories about surviving and thriving during and after divorce. We seek uplifting, contemporary stories on a wide range of topics of importance to divorced women—including but not limited to: dating, children, relationship with ex, in-laws, finances, friends, solitude, personal transformation, healing, revenge, mending fences, the ex's new wife or lover. The majority of stories will be written by women who are or have been divorced. Stories can be poignant, irreverent, humorous, witty, or wise.

Submission Deadline is December 31, 2007. See the writing guidelines for more info!

Call for Submissions: Meadowbrook Press

Funny-but-True Anthology Submission Guidelines

Meadowbrook Press is working on a series of hilarious anthologies featuring funnier-than-fiction tales about the "misadventures" of life. The first anthology in the series, The Breastfeeding Diaries, will be available in November 2007. In the meantime, we're planning many more titles in this funny series, and we want to hear your stories!

WANTED: Short, funny, true stories recounting the “misadventures” from weddings/honeymoons, pregnancy/childbirth, or the baby/toddler years for an upcoming series of anthologies to be published in book form by Meadowbrook Press.

STORY LENGTH: Up to 800 words

PAYMENT: For selected stories, we'll pay the following one-time fees. (Word counts refer to final edited versions.)

$50 for 100 words or less
$75 for 101–250 words
$100 for 251–500 words
$125 for 501–800 words

RIGHTS REQUIRED: Non-exclusive worldwide rights in all languages. Author retains copyright to story.

FORMAT: Stories must be submitted electronically. A story may be typed in the body of an e-mail or sent as an attached Microsoft Word document.

E-MAIL TO: awiechmann@meadowbrookpress.com with subject line “Anthology submission.” Please indicate the submission category: wedding/honeymoon, pregnancy/childbirth, or the baby/toddler years.

DEADLINE: September 1, 2007

We’re looking for tightly written stories featuring one specific incident with a clear humorous focus. For samples of stories that fit our vision for this series, please e-mail a request to awiechmann@meadowbrookpress.com with subject line “Anthology Samples”. Please do not submit stories that are interesting/enlightening/touching but not funny. Such stories are outside the scope of this project.

Poetry Wanted for Parent Blessings book

POETRY needed for PARENT BLESSINGS (previously titled PARENT PRAYERS) is geared specifically for parents and will have the same spiritual tone as BABY BLESSINGS. The intention of the book is to provide insight, joy, and support for parents throughout their parenting journey. Parents will read PARENT BLESSINGS when they feel like celebrating the simple joys of parenting and will also turn to the book for comfort and insight when they feel discouraged in their role as a parent. The primary market will be a gift book for new moms and dads. The secondary market will be parents buying it for themselves for encouragement and inspiration.

The chapters include: Pregnancy, Babies, Toddlers, Children, Teens, Leaving Home, Adulthood, Reflections, and Inspiration. Please avoid standard "Please help me be a better parent" submissions. I particularly need submissions for chapters printed in bold. As always, I appreciate freshness and originality. The selections will reflect upon the spirituality of parenting and day-to-day family life. Parents whose children have passed beyond the first few chapters will enjoy the book for the emotional recollection of the precious early years in a child’s life and appreciate the later chapters that pertain to them.

Submission date is open.

Motherwords, a new magazine for mothers.

Motherwords is a new regional magazine for mothers and families North of Boston. We are currently accepting stories written by moms for moms. We are open to all stories related to motherhood including but not limited to: birth stories, how children have changed your marriage, adoption, good places to take your kids,etc. You do not need to be a resident of New England to submit a story.

Motherhood: We are all in it together; why not share the journey?
Please e-mail your story as a word attachment to:
sarah.teres( at)motherwords. org--replace (at) with @

The deadline for the inaugural issue is June 25, 2007.

Please remember to include your contact information as well as a short personal bio.

For more information about Motherwords, please visit our website: www.motherwords.org

Motherwords. Every mother has a story....what' s yours?

In The Motherhood Scriptwriting Contest

In The MotherHood is the first scripted Web series by moms, for moms and about moms. Conceived by Suave and Sprint, the story will be written in part by YOU, based on your funny, comical and no-holds-barred experiences of motherhood.

Colicky babies, toppling toddlers, terrible-two tantrums, kindergartners uttering obscenities (during parent-teacher conferences, of course) — the comedies of motherhood never seem to end!

What can you do, except laugh and then write about it at In The MotherHood?

It's easy to take the next step, and here's a little secret: Behind the Sign Up Now link lies a haven for harried mothers, a paradise for pooped parents — a really fun event where you'll get to tell your best motherhood tales, win prizes and see your work turned into a series of video webisodes starring the fabulously funny Leah Remini.

We need moms of all kinds to become a part of this new community — you are welcome whether you want to write your own script or just want to read others' stories and vote on them. So what are you waiting for? Sign Up Now before your kids figure out that you're on the computer.

Seeking Personal Stories about Mothers and Motherhood

The story site Common Ties has been publishing personal stories to rave reviews since October 2006. Among its themes, Common Ties is seeking stories about mothers and motherhood to be published starting on Mother's Day. The deadline is May 8.

Most of us retain powerful stories about our mothers/stepmothers/female legal guardians. Your mother might have gotten you the lead in all the school plays, been a shoulder to cry on during hard times, been the inspiration for your current career, or instilled in you values you still hold dear. Or she might have had trouble resisting the bottle or the whip and been the cause of more years of counseling than Woody Allen has had. Most likely you have both good and bad memories, and we would love to see your most compelling stories based upon those memories. You can also tell stories about other mothers you have known, as well as your own experience with motherhood.

Typical payment is between $100 and $200 and in some cases, can reach up to $1,000. Stories should be between 750 and 3,000 words.

Call for Submissions: Glimmer Train

Glimmer Train Press is looking for short stories (12,000 word limit)about family matters. The dates are April 1-30 and October 1-31. The editors at Glimmer Train want "stories to READ like fiction."

http://www.glimmertrain.com/familymatters.html

Call for Submissions: The Maternal Is Political

Writer-mamas, how do your political views affect the way you parent? How has motherhood shaped or transformed your politics? How does the act of mothering serve as a form of activism in your life? What important work is being done at the place where motherhood and politics meet? Shari MacDonald Strong is seeking essay submissions for a literary anthology about mothers who are changing the world; about the relationship between motherhood and social change. The deadline is June 1, 2007. Selected essays will appear in the anthology The Maternal Is Political (Spring 2008, Seal Press). For more details, see the submissions guidelines at Shari’s blog. (The call for submissions will be posted on Seal Press's website in the next few days.)

Contest: Are You a Writer Mama (or Papa)?

Writer's Digest wants to hear from you on the topic of "When Parenting and Writing Collide." Write your best original, unpublished parenting-and-writing story in a 500-word essay and email it to publicity(at)fwpubs.com with "Writer Mama contest" in the subject line.

Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids will select the top three entries. The first-place entry will be published in an upcoming issue of "Writer's Digest" magazine; second- and third-place entries will be posted on WriterMama.com. All winners will receive a signed copy of "Writer Mama." All entries must be e-mailed by March 31.

The fine print: The entry must be written in the body of the e-mail; attachments will not be accepted or opened. Each entry should include your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Only the winning writers will be contacted, and entries will not be returned. "Writer's Digest" retains first-time rights to run the winning entries in the magazine and/or on their website or associated websites, after which all rights return to the author. The decisions of the editors are final.

Call for Submissions - Seal Press

How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel, Edited by Sarah Franklin
To be published by Seal Press, Spring 2008

From the submission guidelines: "How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel is a collection of humorous essays by women. Whether it’s being stuck on the tarmac for 15 hours with Dora the Explorer for company, or discovering that the road trip these days is more National Lampoon than Jack Kerouac, this anthology depicts the good, the bad, and the just plain hilarious side of traveling with children."