@ Literary Mama

This summer has been full of creative works.  Read the most recent pieces at Literary Mama…

COLUMNS

Fruiting: What Happens After You Become a Published Writer (A Guide for When the Fruits of Your Labor Start Coming In) by Cassie Premo Steele from Birthing the Mother Writer

Wanting to become a published writer is a little like thinking about going on a diet. You imagine your life will be different. You think it will solve some self-esteem problems. You think people might like, respect, and admire you a little more.

Never Let Me Go by B.L. Pike from Senior Mama

Either way they are mine, and yet not mine. They grow, always venturing away, feeling less than I do both the ache of separation and the glow of their competence.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Same Old Song and Dance by Francie Arenson Dickman

I point to the laundry baskets of dance costumes piled on the mudroom floor. “I know,” I say. “I thought I’d be churning out thoughts by the thousands. They’re in there, but I can’t hear them because they’re buried under all of this crap.” I pick up a pink bubblegum tutu, which sits on top of one of the baskets.

Labyrinth by Patti Crouch

As a child I never dreamed of being a mother, didn’t play house, preferred my Tonka truck to dolls.

Benjy Awake by Deborah Vlock

This is a story I need to tell, as if the telling itself is a charm against disaster. It’s a story about the weight of the world and the pull of sleep when you are tired of being awake.

FICTION

Incarnation by Katherine Bhee

Facing the American, rooting her there with a calm, begging gaze, was a Filipina in a ragged Hello Kitty T-shirt, shorts, and plastic flip-flops. A smile lay easily on her weathered face.

The Blue Bird by Aurelia Wills

They hadn’t been on a vacation in years. She never had the kids on weekends; she saw Sam and Ben weeknights when she was exhausted from teaching. She’d gotten it together enough to plan this trip for the week before summer school started.

LITERARY REFLECTIONS

Essential Reading: Journeys by Libby Maxey

Children’s literature is full of long yet pleasant journeys that feel at once liberating, exciting and cozy.

Now Reading: July by Libby Maxey

Even if we are in summer reading mode, there’s no reason we need settle for fluff or pulp.

POETRY

Each Jar Tied with Bright Red Ribbon by Sadie Ducet

Shelled by Olga Livshin

Rocking Chair by Olga Livshin

Strength by Vicki L. Wilson

The Lizard Escapes in Grass by Heidi Shulman Greenwald

Mother as Lint by Elizabeth Kerlikowske

PROFILES

A Conversation with Katrina Kenison by Lisa Lynne Lewis

In her most recent memoir, Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment, Katrina Kenison writes of needing to re-find her purpose as she faces an empty nest, the shifting landscape of her marriage and the death of a close friend.

REVIEWS

The Art of Journaling: Five Favorite Books by Karna Converse

For more than a dozen years, I kept a journal specifically for responding to writing prompts that I hoped to one day turn into essays for publication.

Everyday Redemption: A Review of Ride the Tortoise by Erinn Kelley

Any mother knows that the role often requires a touch of split-personality; we wear many faces, play many different parts.