@ Literary Mama

Read the most recent pieces at Literary Mama…

COLUMNS

True Love Weights by Heather Cori from Perfectly Normal

“It’s called a chastity ring or an abstinence ring. It’s her promise not to have sex until she’s married.” I said. Maya’s face squinched, “You are joking, right?”

Overlooked by B.L. Pike from Senior Mama

Bob and I worry about the worth of things. Dara and Tony, our youngest daughter and son, never give it a thought.

Gathering in the Harvest of Girls: On Mothering, Desire, and Writing by Cassie Premo Steele from Birthing the Mother Writer

A Bieber concert is as much for the moms as the girls. For one night, our daughters’ eye rolling and self-doubt turn into screaming and exhilaration.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Meltdown by Amy Fleak

And the tears begin to fall, because the last time you slept more than five hours at a stretch was during the Bush administration, and because you know that you are not functioning well, and because you know you have a good life, but you feel angry anyway, and because your emotions feel out of control.

Fighting Words by Liza Greville

He sees a snapshot in time, a blip of American history plucked out of context without any action on the field.

A New Millennium Summer by April Gibson

Each day I argue with my father until I decide it is all his fault, and tell him how the sins of daughters belong to daddies too.

FICTION

Cupcakes in Wonderland by Katherine Gehan

Consuming the sugary swirls of hydrogenated fat is a small act of rebellion as her mother-in-law degenerates in a rented hospital bed.

LITERARY REFLECTIONS

Essential Reading: Teaching and Learning by Libby Maxey

Literary Mama is staffed by writers (and writer-teachers) who volunteer their time here.  Thus I ought not to have been surprised that the theme of “Teaching and Learning” brought out warm recommendations for books on writing.

Now Reading: August 2013 by Libby Maxey

This month, our editors offer emphatic endorsements for a variety of books that feel like a learning experience — in a good way.

POETRY

Anybody’s Animal by Katy E. Ellis

Superman Steps Down by Deborah Gang

Sonnet for Arran by Renee M. Schell

Rescued Barbie by Elizabeth Kerlikowske

At Home with Young Children by Donna Levine Gershon

Hemming Xarton’s Cape by Leslie L. Nielsen

PROFILES

A Conversation with Amy Shearn by Kate Hopper

In her second novel, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, Amy Shearn writes about love, identity, belonging, and the ways in which motherhood changes how we see ourselves in the world.

REVIEWS

Review of Yona Harvey’s Hemming the Water by Alyse Bensel

Yona Harvey’s debut poetry collection, Hemming the Water, illuminates generational strength in family—how the body carries not only the physical but the emotional weight of the past and its attached memory.

A Review of Wanda Praisner’s Where the Dead Are by Alyse Bensel

In Where the Dead Are, Wanda S. Praisner uses poetry in the daily struggle of remembering and recounting her 19-year-old son’s untimely death.