Singing Our Praises

It seems like every time I sit down to write, something more immediate calls me away. The toddler refuses to nap. The baby is fussy with an ear infection. The dog needs to be taken to the vet.

The nice thing about being involved in a community of mother writers is knowing that so many others are trying to do the same thing — balance work and writing and raising children and trying to carve out an identity outside of parenting.

And so when one of us finds professional success — acknowldgement from the outside world that we are not toiling away in vain — we are so genuinely pleased. There is a real desire to celebrate each other’s work.

So we are thrilled to note a few recent successes by members of the Literary Mama community:

Literary Mama Contributor Gayle Brandeis’s short fiction piece, A Long Time, has been recognized as a Milion Writers Award Notable Story of 2005. Judges will be selecting the top ten online short stories for 2005 in April.

Literary Mama Associate Editor Helaine Olen has had her piece, A Truce in the Mommy Wars, published on Salon.com. In her article, Olen interviews Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of the recently published anthology, Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families. (I have yet to read the Steiner book but I am thrilled to see that Amazon customers who are buying her anthology are also buying Miriam Peskowitz’s wonderful book The Truth Behind The Mommy Wars.) Literary Mama has published an excerpt from Steiner’s book (Terri Minsky’s The Mother Load) in Literary Reflections.

Finally, the NPN anthology, Using Our Words, is in its second printing now. Hip Mama recently published a review of the anthology, and a number of the book’s authors (including a number of Literary Mama contributors) will be reading at the following bookstores:

Sunday, April 23 @ 4:00 PM
Mrs. Dalloway’s
2904 College Avenue in Berkeley
(510) 704-8222

Monday, May 1 @ 7:30 PM
Black Oak Books
Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley
(510) 486-0698