Literary Mama Rewind: Escapes
Welcome to Literary Mama Rewind! Every few weeks we’ll round up some of our favorite essays, stories, poems, columns, and reviews from the Literary Mama Archives relating to a particular theme. This week we are escaping. Whether it be from work, family, or a trip away from the status quo, so are the mamas in the these stories. All you have to do is click and read….
- Mamas on the Loose by Katherine J. Barrett from the Column Mother City Mama
My eldest son will be eight this year, the twins are now six, and I can count on one hand the nights I’ve spent away. Mothers who travel for business, share custody or have extended family nearby, mothers who are a bit more… relaxed, might think this insane.
- Home by Avery Fischer Udagawa from the Column Four Worlds
This is “vacation,” but we are visiting not tourist havens but relatives’ homes. A Japanese author we met in June observed that wherever we go, we are doing sato gaeri: going back home.
- Grant us Wisdom, Grant us Courage by Peggy Hong from the Column Far From Cool
My husband, Ed, and I just returned from four days away from our children, the longest we’ve ever been away.
- The New Country by Susan Cattaneo in Fiction
When they got on the long train of flights from Dayton to Minneapolis to Paris to Nice, everything seemed possible. But all that went slowly away, hissing like a slow leak in a tire the moment they touched down on French soil.
- Model Mother by Tricia Stirling in Fiction
Weeks ago, they decided to take a vacation together, mother and daughter on the open road. Their meeting place is Vancouver, Canada. J.J. has driven up from Seattle. She meets her mother at the train station.
- Family Vacation by Janis Hubschman in Fiction
It was pouring rain when they arrived at the Long Beach Island rental house. Craig and the girls huddled on the porch, while Elaine jiggled the key in the lock. She hoped it was the wrong house.
- Underwater by Angel Sans Gun in Creative Nonfiction
I never liked water. As a child, I didn’t have the luxury of it. Poor girls only learn the strokes necessary to keep from drowning.
- Head Trip: A Review of Elizabeth Graver’s Unravelling, The Honey Thief, and Awake by Suzanne Lafetra in Reviews
At times during my reading of all three of Elizabeth Graver’s novels, I found myself weeping; not because of a tragic twist of plot, but because I recognized my own shadowed reflection staring back at me.