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More on writing frankly about one’s children: I always, always, always look forward to Catherine Newman’s weekly column about life with Birdy, her two-year-old daughter, and her five-year-old son Ben. Bringing Up Ben & Birdy is published every Monday on the commercial site ParentCenter and in my opinion it’s the very best feature that site […]

There’s been a lot of negative buzz online lately about Ayelet Waldman’s new column on Salon, which she recently started after giving up posting on her addictively readable parenting blog, Bad Mother. I have to admit that at times I’ve been surprised, even taken aback, by just how much Waldman reveals but it’s… interesting to […]

Jennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkinson, the editors of Brain, Child magazine, wonder why publishers seem to be backing off literary offerings by, for, and about mothers — when sixty-eight percent of books are purchased by women. At one point though — say, around 2003 — around we started getting discouraging notes from writers we know. […]

This story is more than a week old but I’ve still chosen to link it now because it’s of particular interest to women who write about mothering. The Guardian recently took British writers Ali Smith and Toby Litt to task for characterizing the work of many women writers as “dull, depressed and domestic” in their […]

This Belgian commercial uses a zippy video game format to warn teen girls about the drudgery of mothering a newborn. It reminds me of the new baby feature in The Sims. I must have had at least three simulated babies taken away by a simulated child welfare worker before I understood just how much attention […]

Welcome to the Literary Mama blog. For the time being, I’ll be your guide — even though I guess I don’t yet strictly qualify as one of the “literary mamas” around here. Not just yet. My due date isn’t for another five weeks. But when that day does (finally, finally) come, I feel pretty sure […]