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I’m 50-something and saw the Barbie movie with my girlfriends in the first few days it came out. We dressed in pink and piled into the Barbie box to take photos. The opening scene, mirroring 2001: A Space Odyssey, hooked me and cleverly introduced the movie’s theme of individuality and identity. The costumes and Barbie […]

Literary Mama is hosting a writing month for all of September! We will be offering virtual write-ins, writing resources, and an AMA with LM staff to support our literary mama community. Event Schedule All event times are listed for Eastern Time Sunday, September 10 | 8 p.m.: Write-In Thursday, September 14 | 1 p.m.: Ask […]

I was a certified “Barbie head” growing up. I was that girl who had tons of Barbies and was always on the hunt for more. My first—Black Barbie—is closest to my heart. I don’t remember when my mother gave her to me—I just remember owning her. She had an afro, wore a red leotard, and […]

First, a caveat. I’ve not seen Greta’s Barbie, yet. I fully intend to get there, but this mama doesn’t get a whole lot of time so, for a minute, I’m going to distill my thoughts on the ineffable Barbara Roberts up until now. I’m an ’87 baby so Barbie was firmly established in the gestalt […]

It’s that time of year when kids (and sometimes their parents) head back to the classroom, and this transition can come with mixed feelings. Sometimes it is a time of sadness that the slow, lazy days of summer have to end. For others, this time is exciting with new faces, classes, and clubs to add […]

A five-week virtual course on Writing Motherhood hosted by Gila Lyons will run from October 10, 2023 – November 14, 2023.  Class will include readings, discussion, writing exercises, the opportunity to develop longer pieces, and hearing and sharing stories of motherhood and mothering with other creative, thoughtful, searching, and soulful writers. There will be opportunities to share […]

By the time my daughter was three years old, many of her friends had Barbies. She began asking for one of her own. I was of the mind that Barbie was a clueless bimbo with weird feet, and Ken was a putz. I didn’t buy one until that day in the grocery store. It had […]

The new Barbie film has transported me to my childhood. Barbara Millicent Roberts arrived at my house on December 25, 1963. Barbie was gorgeous in her gold and white bathing suit and matching headscarf. The new doll was a grown-up girl, but many of my friends looked like her, All-American little girls with blue eyes, straight part-in-the-middle, yellow-white hair, and Coppertone-tanned […]

Applications will soon be accepted for A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program (Sept. 5-Oct. 5). The winners, finalists and honorable mentions will be announced in November. The grand prize winners will be honored at the April 4-6, 2024, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, where they will be “robed” in […]

Unless you’ve been living in a bubble, you’ve seen video and memes or heard chatter from friends about Greta Gerwig’s new film, Barbie. If you’ve seen it, we’d love to publish your 400-700 word essays or poems on the blog about what Barbie means to you as a mama. These are just some ideas you […]

If you’re reading this, you know how hard it is to make time for writing as a mom. After changing diapers to cleaning up messes and helping with homework and cleaning up more messes, it’s not always easy to dive into a writing project and find your flow. But as a mama writer, writing is […]