July/Aug Issue Highlights

I am always on time to work but late to the party otherwise, which is why a blog on the highlights of the previous Literary Mama issue is a good task for me. Sometimes it is the first chance I’ve had to actually look at it. I imagine many other literary mamas feel the same. 

C.L. Brenton’s poem Things I Googled After You Were Born brings back all the unknowns of early motherhood. I distinctly remember returning from the hospital, setting our now 22-year-old daughter on the floor in her carseat, and wondering “What do I do?” 

Carrying those early worries into the future, the longer creative nonfiction piece Here Comes Trouble by Nichole Gravel, made me think about my early days teaching before I had children of my own. I didn’t understand how fraught motherhood could be, how much a parent couldn’t control. Over time, I’ve come to try to give grace to others who, like me, are mostly doing the best they can given their circumstances. 

What pieces have stood out to you from the summer issue of the magazine?