Personal Narratives

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 […]

When I was a kid, our family of four lived in a home with one bathroom, and I recall deciding, whenever my mother was in the bathtub, that I needed to speak with her at that moment about something highly important. I remember sitting on the toilet lid, chatting away to my captive audience. I […]

My youngest, who is almost nine, sits at the kitchen table with her math notebook, working on multiplication tables. I sit beside her, my hands wrapped tightly around a warm mug of tea, waiting for her to ask for help. She can do most of her assignments on her own, but feels more confident with […]

Once upon a time, I wrote for two hours a day. I woke up before the sun and worked on a manuscript while my coffee was hot and my brain was firing on, filling my mornings with my favorite thing to do before heading in for work. These are not those days. Today I still […]

If you’re like me, typing is faster than writing by hand. Often I get stuck staring at a blinking cursor. Recently, I discovered a trick to get the words flowing.  Print the piece you’re working on. Close the computer. Find a notebook and pen. Let your mind wander on the page. Write for ten minutes. Don’t […]

The Literary Reflections Department at Literary Mama is seeking submissions for our July/August 2023 publication. We are looking for original first-person essays about the intersection of parenthood and the creative process, and we welcome perspectives from all genders. For this issue, we’re interested in pieces between 1,500-3,000 words about children’s summer reading. Whether you have a success […]

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. If there is a ❤️ next to a call, that means the magazine or press is specifically looking for mother writers. We ❤️ all our Mamas! Literary Mama is always […]

The Literary Reflections Department at Literary Mama is seeking submissions for our May/June 2023 publication. We are looking for original first-person essays about the intersection of parenthood and the creative process, and we welcome perspectives from all genders. For this issue, we’re interested in pieces between 1,500-3,000 words related to either Mother’s Day or Father’s […]

Mama writers, it’s your time to shine. We want to publish your writing right here on the Literary Mama blog! In honor of our 20th anniversary, we want to celebrate the voices in our community. Here’s what you need to know. Blog Submission Prompt and Guidelines We’re asking for blog submissions on the prompt: What […]

As a child, I was fond of telling dramatic stories. In fourth grade, I wrote a one-act play called “Tornado.” Four sisters lost both parents in a devastating natural disaster and were dispersed around the country only to meet up in their 20s at a Broadway audition. I directed, produced, and starred in this basement […]