@Literary Mama

Read the most recent pieces at Literary Mama…

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COLUMNS

The Hare and I by B.L. Pike from Senior Mama
Maybe Aesop had it wrong. Or maybe he’s just 2,600 years out of date.

June Cleaver: The Exorcism by Marjorie Osterhout from Dear Marjo
Dear Marjo, I have three amazing kids who are smart and funny and most of all exuberant. I know it’s a cliché, but they really do fill our home with love and laughter. But they also fill it with crap.

Pledge of Allegiance by Avery Fischer Udagawa from Four Worlds
I confess I have never viewed the display with a toddler’s zest to admire and identify. Most flags correspond to few or zero experiences in my life, while one summons a childhood of memories—songs, fireworks, pledges of allegiance.

Editor Response to Renewal: Beginning a New Season in the Mother Writer Life By Cassie Premo Steele from Birthing the Mother Writer
This is what I wished for—
both of them in school all day.
What will I do first?

Black and Blue by Marjorie Osterhout from Dear Marjo
I’m pretty sure I’m going through post-partum depression. I’m okay with the baby—I hold him and feed him and love him, of course. And he’s sleeping through the night, so I’m starting to get past the physical exhaustion. But I can’t get past the emotional part.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Birds and Bees and Bullets by Janet Buttenwieser
Don’t look at pictures, I told myself. Then I looked. Photographs of emergency workers, of parents scouring the crowd for their children, my tears a miniscule version of those of the mothers on my screen.

Boys by Anna Lea Jancewicz
I plant my hands on my hips and announce, “That’s stupid! Girls-can-do-anything-that-boys-can.” That’s what I’ve been told. And I believe it with perfect faith. It’s 1979. I have a full-color poster of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman above my bed.

Flood by Claire T. Lawrence
I’m a lot better now; mostly it’s okay. We adjust. But when I drink I remember the cold pool of anger under my ribs.

Flesh Undone by Kerri Dieffenwierth
Later, the coordinator gives you a business card for a marriage counselor. “Only half the couples make it,” she says without emotion.

FICTION

Mountain by Allyson Shames
As I lie here I feel the baby kicking. My friends said that I’m stupid coming here by myself under any circumstances, but pregnant?  Maybe they’re right, but it’s too late to think about that now.

LITERARY REFLECTIONS

Essential Reading by Libby Maxey
When I chose the topic for this month’s Essential Reading list, I felt vaguely certain that “Sacrifice” must be one of the most common ideas in all of literature.

Now Reading: April 2014 by Libby Maxey
These titles touch the broken side of humanity in variously appealing ways.

PROFILES

‘More Important than Discretion’: The Education of Anne Morrow Lindbergh by Kelly Blewett
In 1928, Anne Morrow graduated from Smith, a women’s college in Massachusetts. With an introverted nature and a serious demeanor, Anne found great pleasure in writing.

REVIEWS

Great Expectations: A Review of How to Expect What You’re Not Expecting by Rachel Hall
How to Expect is a wise book and a much-needed addition to the now slowly expanding collection of books about pregnancy and loss.