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By the time July and August roll around, the heat can be unbearable. While this makes gardening and hiking difficult, it makes reading under a fan with a cool drink beside you an absolutely perfect way to spend an hour. Our staff shares what they’ve been knocking out from their to-be-read lists. What book are […]

Ten years ago (“the blink of an eye,” in Mama time) I wrote a post honoring this site’s 10th anniversary. I’m back for another milestone—20 years of Literary Mama! The editors asked for some thoughts on the Columns department, which is where it all began for me, having edited nine columns for LM. I really […]

Welcome to our Calls for Submissions page. Here, we’ll feature new publication opportunities for all our Mama readers. Look for updated posts every other month. Don’t see a favorite magazine? Some close submission windows during the summer months, so check back in the fall. The list below contains plenty of literary magazines that are accepting […]

Having trouble getting into your writer’s seat this summer? Hopefully you’re off making amazing memories that will inspire future essays and stories, but if you do find yourself at a coffee shop with a couple luxurious free hours, here are a few writing prompts to get your pen moving. 1.CNF/Journal: Write about your favorite 4th […]

How does summer influence you as a mother? You may try to recreate the wonderful experiences from your childhood with your own kids, such as camping in the quiet woods or chasing lightning bugs in the backyard. Maybe you struggle with summer and the pervasive lack of routine that seems to come with it. With […]

I’m a little bit addicted to traveling. While I tell myself that there are worse addictions, the state of the carpet in my home and the 16-year-old sandals in my closet suggest that maybe I ought to focus at least some of my attention on non-travel spending.  The writer in me has an opinion about […]

It was one of those moments that is hard to describe. An email arrived in my inbox in December 2018 from Felicity Landa and Colleen Kearney Rich, then fiction editors at Literary Mama, about the acceptance of my flash fiction. Oh, the joy! An acceptance does that every time to a writer. What’s more, Literary Mama has been […]

Part of the mothering story is the fathering story whether that fathering was purely biological or whether it involved consistent and complex relationship. Writers who have contributed to Literary Mama over its two decades have examined the role of fathers and what it has meant and can mean to daughters, sons, wives, families, and communities. […]

You’re invited to transform your favourite queer theory text into a poem using only single-syllable words.   MONOSYLLABIC QUEER THEORY will be a book-length poetry collection that welcomes all forms of poetry (short, long, prose poems, free verse, highly formal, and beyond). Stylistically, knock yourself out. Have fun. Go for it! See the Call for Submissions for more details.  Submission Guidelines: Submissions:Early-bird […]

BAT: Are there any flavors to your own feelings about parenting that are particular to being a non-binary parent?  MC: It’s something I’m…I don’t know, dealing with in a new way. My gender feels less my own and more about me in relation to others, including a small person I love very much. Now, it’s […]

Marisa Crane’s debut novel, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself (Catapult, 2022), is about a parent named Kris grieving the loss of her wife while raising her kid in a near-future surveillance state that punishes ‘harmful’ actions with the assignment of extra shadows. Crane lives in San Diego with their wife and child. You can […]