Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts [Paperback]

Bee Lavender (Editor), Maia Rossini (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2004

Brought to the kitchen table by Hip Mama managing director Bee Lavender and editor Maia Rossini, Mamaphonic collects confessions and conversations about the exhilarating, entertaining, and difficult aspects of remaining creative while raising children. Essays range from the hilarious, such as "The Rudest Muse" by Lisa Peet, an illustrator and specialty baker who, by listening to her teenage son, finds new directions for her work; to the heart-wrenching "Childish Things" by Lori Pfeiffer, a writer diagnosed with a terminal illness during her pregnancy, who asks, "If you had only six months to live, what would you write?" Including voices as diverse as a transgendered teenage couple, an academic feminist, a punk rocker, and a poet, this eclectic mix of musings proves that becoming a mother is not the end but the beginning. Contributors include Ingrid Wendt, Ayun Halliday, Phoebe Gloeckner, Jen Thorpe, Gayle Brandeis, and others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bee Lavender...is the very embodiment of extreme motherhood." -- Borders.com

"[One of] the reigning mother superiors of the [hip mothers] crowd [is] Bee Lavender..." -- TIME Magazine

About the Author

Bee Lavender is the co-author of Breeder and the editor of the online version of Hip Mama. She lives in London. Maia Rossini is producer and editor at Hipmama.com. She lives in Rifton, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932360646
• ISBN-13: 978-1932360646
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book!, December 12, 2004

By 

J. Aragon "Feminist Educator" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts (Paperback)

If you're at all familiar with the Hip Mama website or the Mamaphonic website, then you know that this book rocks! This book is a wonderful anthology filled w/ honest excerpts about women's lives.
Some of the essays are heartbreaking and poignant and others will make you laugh so hard that you'll cry. I'm going to give this book to all my friends with kids. It's a perfect gift.
If you liked Bitch in the House, Slacker Mom or read zines like like Edgy Catin' Mama, Hip Mama, or East Village Inky then you'll "get" what these mamas are saying.

Read and enjoy!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mix, June 2, 2005

By 

K. Elwell (Sonoma County, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts (Paperback)

Let me preface this by saying that I really appreciate that we are able to hear the voices of a variety of different mothers, and their parenting styles. I purchased this book because I thought I would get some input on how to balance the struggling-artist type lifestyle of my husband and myself, with new parenthood. The end sentence on the back of the book "...becoming a mother is an expression of creativity, not its silencing" really got me to buy this. Some stories are very good and touching, but others just weren't interesting and were poorly written. The editing is also poor, as there are mistakes in many of the stories. The vast majority of the stories were written by women attempting to balance a writing career with motherhood. I really questioned the judgment of a few of these women, since I don't think it's appropriate to feed your kids junk food all day and have frozen waffles for dinner so that you can have time to be 'creative.' Some stories read to me as if these mothers were more concerned with their own achievement than with raising their children, and that the goal of the day was usually to get away from the kids and find time to work. However, most of the mothers did mention that their children were incredible boosts to their creativity, and some were very insightful. I just got the overriding impression that the work of motherhood mostly sucks, but ends up paying off somewhere down the road.

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, witty and a relief, March 30, 2007

By 

Yana Richaud - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts (Paperback)

This is a great collection of essays from different women in widely varying creative fields. Not a "how to" so much as a balm for the exhausted new mother's soul.