Edited by Andrea J. Buchanan and Amy Hudock. From the authors’ website:
“For mothers who write or aspire to, who find meaning and humor in the demanding but wondrous daily experience of raising children, and who value the sharing of these varied experiences, comes a wonderfully rich compendium by mothers who write:the lively, refined, honest, and witty Literary Mama.
“This unique collection features the best of LiteraryMama.com, a site devoted to mam-centric writing with fresh voices, superior craft, and vivid imagery. While the majority of literature on parenting is neither literary nor written by mothers, this book is both. Whether writing about the expectations that come along with being a parent, the feelings of both pride and loss inherent in watching a child grow up, or the hectic balancing act of mothering and maintaining a creative life, these writers speak to the unending adventure of being a mother. Including creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, Literary Mama celebrates the voices of the maternally inclined, paves the way for other writer-mothers, and honors the difficult and rewarding work women do as they move into motherhood.”
Scribblingwoman has this review:
“…[D]on’t read this book in a public place or you may end up sobbing in a cubicle in the washroom at your local diner but quickly stifling it when someone else comes in, someone who thinks they are alone and so shuts off the lights when they leave, which would leave you sitting in the dark but not enough in control of your voice to call out, “Hey lady, I’m in here!” and so you would have to find your own way to the light switch in pitch black, and you might bang your head. Which would improve neither your state of mind nor your appearance.
“To be fair, this might not happen to every reader. And please don’t be alarmed at the sobbing part. I certainly don’t mean to give the impression that all, or even most, of the pieces collected here are tragic. A couple are; a couple may break your heart. But almost all of them share, in one way or another, in the sense of how the world becomes a much more threatening place once we have birthed a child. In the sense of how happiness is revealed as so much more fragile than we had thought, back when our hearts were safely inside our bodies and not tottering around on two very small legs.” …
