Giving Tuesday 2022
Literary Mama has been publishing the work of mama writers in an open-access, online journal since 2003, and we’ve been proud to grow as an all-volunteer organization known for its support of emerging and established mama writers.
In 2009, the editors published Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined, an anthology written by the staff at the time and edited by Andrea Buchanan and Amy Hudock. Since then, many editors have hoped to publish another anthology to celebrate the labor and beauty of our former and current staff in a collection of their writing.
However, Literary Mama’s focus has remained on our six issues per year, which require the heft and dedication of a volunteer staff that understands the challenges that make up motherhood, and knows that our experiences have been and still are marginalized. Up to this point, we’ve faced a quandary familiar to most mamas who write: we have willingly and joyfully taken on so many obligations—some unique combination of child-rearing, working outside the home, and trying to find space for our own artistic passions—that compiling a new collection couldn’t possibly top our priority list.
Until now.
Earlier this year, I undertook a new anthology project. This book, like our original anthology, will feature the voices of former and current Literary Mama staff. I have been delighted to work with my colleagues to bring to life fiction, poems, and essays that reflect a diversity of motherhood experiences. The book will contain powerful birth stories, naturally, as well as stories about letting go of adult children, caring for our own mothers, sharing food with our families, and finding strength after loss. Every mother has a story to tell, and I’m honored to work with these writers in telling theirs.
Literary Mama is collaborating with Small Harbor Publishing to produce the book, with an anticipated release date of late 2023, to celebrate Literary Mama’s 20th anniversary.
Because Literary Mama is an all-volunteer organization and always has been, one of my goals for the anthology is to pay contributors. I believe that even a small token of financial appreciation will remind these mother writers, who labor for the sake of supporting other mother writers across the globe, that their work is valued, noticed, and important.
This year for Giving Tuesday, then, we are asking for your help in supporting our anthology project. Any amount will help. Whether you’re new to Literary Mama, or have been a longtime reader, we hope that you find value and enjoyment in the journal and will find more to appreciate in our forthcoming anthology. If you are able to support this community of mother writers, please donate.
Thank you to our supporters who have given in the past as well as those who are giving now. Your help ensures that we can continue the journal’s mission. Please join us as we mark this anniversary milestone and look to Literary Mama’s future.
Sincerely,
Amanda Jaros
Co-Editor-in-chief
–Literary Mama is an exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax deductible.