May/June Issue Highlights

Yes, the July/August issue of Literary Mama is out, but it is the dog days of summer and I’ve gotten behind for very different reasons than when I run behind during the school year.

I wanted to take a moment to highlight a couple pieces from the May/June issue that really spoke to me.

One is a creative nonfiction piece by Patricia Lawler Kenet titled “Night Talk,” which acted as a mirror for me when I read it. Writers often talk about where their desire to write came from. Frequently, they reflect on not seeing their own experiences in the books and stories available to them and that being a motivator. Their writing would, hopefully, become a mirror that readers could see themselves in.

I am a mother of a son who struggled mightily with anxiety and obsessive thinking when he was in elementary school and would often ask deep and dismal questions. While he is now 18 and has learned to cope with some of those “existential stresses” Kenet mentions, reading her piece took me back to that time and those worries (many of which I still have), but also made me know that I’m not alone.

I couldn’t help but enjoy Laura Leigh Morris’s “Circe,” a short fiction piece that packs a wallop and speaks to my English teacher heart since The Odyssey is part of my curriculum. It should probably be printed and gifted to every postpartum new mother (and father to avoid being turned into pig slop).

If you’re just now getting a chance to look through the May/June issue or you’ve already perused the latest edition, which pieces have spoken to you? Drop us a line in the comments.