Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined [Paperback]

Andrea J. Buchanan (Editor), Amy Hudock (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005

Becoming a mother takes more than the physical act of giving birth or completing an adoption: it takes birthing oneself as a mother through psychological, intellectual, and spiritual work that continues throughout life. Yet most women’s stories of personal growth after motherhood tend to remain untold. As writers and mothers, Andrea Buchanan and Amy Hudock were frustrated by what they perceived as a lack of writing by mothers that captured the ambiguity, complexity, and humor of their experiences. So they decided to create the place they wanted to find, with the kind of writing they wanted to read.

This unique collection features the best of the online magazine literarymama.com, a site devoted to mama-centric writing with fresh voices, superior craft, and vivid imagery. While the majority of literature on parenting is not literary or is not written by mothers, this book is both. Including creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, Literary Mama celebrates the voices of the maternally inclined, paves the way for other writer mamas, and honors the difficult and rewarding work women do as they move into motherhood.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrea J. Buchanan is the managing editor of literarymama.com and author of Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It. She is also the editor of It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons and It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580051588
• ISBN-13: 978-1580051583
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good I won't keep it!!!!!, January 11, 2006

By 

Anita Margarita (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined (Paperback)

Amazon.com recommended this book to me and since it was so reasonably priced and close to the lack of control on spending that is the holidays I decided to take a chance, and I am so very glad that I did. This anthology is so good in fact, that I can't keep it all to myself. I am going to give it away once I'm done. I'll buy another one later - when I want to read something again, and do the same with it.

I knew I would love it halfway through the introduction because they started referencing all these writers/editors whose work I loved - Ariel Gore, Mothers who Think, etc. Also, they list many names that I haven't heard, giving me new books to explore after I am finished with this one.

I've only finished the first section, but every single one of those prose pieces has spoken some universal truth that struck me very hard and deeply. Longing for solitude, anxiety on how the world will treat a unique child and the despair that it might be "beaten" out of her, children as unknowing masters of allusion and metaphor... not ten minutes after reading that line my daughter compared a dead leaf still clinging to the tree, blowing gently in the wind to a worm on a see saw, other lines mention how children have helped the writer slow down and pay attention to the "now," when other mothers warned her that life was about to get much faster.

Great, great stuff.

I was immediately brought back to an advanced writing course I took in college. My daughter was an infant and I tried to use that course to sublimate the anxieties from having my life completely transformed. However - it was a course full of college kids and was even TAUGHT by a college kid (a graduate student)! They didn't trash my work by any means, but NONE of them, not even the teacher, could relate.

There is a piece in this book, which the Web site dubbs a "literary reflection," that references Henry David Thoreau and Walden Pond.

This peice is special to me in particular because we had covered Thoreau - a walking piece - in the writing class. Mine was rather Seinfeldian, about nothing, but I wanted it to flip between a woman "living in the moment" and her fight with all the stupid minutiae that gets in the way of that, what to cook for dinner, etc. I wasn't successful - but I didn't have the words to explain what I was trying to do. The piece in that book helped me find those words. Man, when my teacher said that the best way to learn good writing is to read good writing - she wasn't kidding. The story in this book triggered my mind to be able to work on a peice that I hadn't touched in FIVE YEARS!

This book is not just for writers, however. I spent those five years READING in order to preserve my sanity, not writing.

The final evidence that you should get this book - you're just going to have to trust me on this one - I was actually underlining passages that felt like they were directly for me. I assure you that I don't do that, and I used to scoff at those who did. I thought it was incredibly pretentious and just plain dorky.

But now I get it. I hope you will too.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Frank and Honest Collection of Writing About Motherhood, March 15, 2006

By 

Ann Douglas "pregnancy/parenting author" (Peterborough, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined (Paperback)

This book is a collection of essays edited by Andi Buchanan and Amy Hudock of LiteraryMama.com -- a website that has raised the bar for writing about motherhood both on and offline.

What I love about this collection of writing is what I love about LiteraryMama.com: the fact that it reflects the reality of motherhood. The writing isn't saccharine and cutesy. Rather, the book is honest enough to admit that there are times when we are disappointed and frustrated and angry with our kids -- and times when we feel guilty for feeling that way -- as well as times when we feel so happy about having a chance at motherhood that we are almost giddy.

Here's something else I love Buchanan and Hudock's collection. Rather than limiting themselves to "name brand writers", Buchanan and Hudock have sought to give voice to both well-known and lesser-known writers. The result is a highly personal collection of memoir, reflections, and poetry from a highly diverse and talented group of everymoms. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helps you find your brain, February 6, 2007

By 

E. Wise (MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined (Paperback)

I knew I still had a brain but I didn't know where it was until I found it again by reading these smart, funny, touching and poignant essays, poems, stories. One thing I liked about this collection that made it more interesting than many other similarly themed books is that a number of different literary forms are included. Like any collection some pieces are better than others but overall the quality is high and all are short enough to read in the moments between feedings and diaper changes.