Not For Mothers Only [Paperback]

Catherine Wagner (Editor), Rebecca Wolff (Editor), Alicia Ostriker (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

"The poets in this anthology have been ravished, whacked, illuminated, blown away by the experience of motherhood. The thousand experiences. The thousand interruptions. The fact that it is never what we expected, and that it is overwhelmingly intense."—Alicia Ostriker, from the foreword

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Just in time for Mothers' Day comes this anthology of poems about the experience of motherhood, or 'the thousand experiences, the thousand interruptions,' as poet Alicia Ostriker writes in the foreword. Edited by two friends who met in the early 1990s at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Not for Mothers Only collects poems on a range of subjects under the motherhood umbrella, some intimate and personal, others historical and political. Among the contributors are well-known poets (Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Forche, Sharon Olds, for example) and emerging ones (most are likely to be new to readers). There's very little in the way of helpful structuring: The contributors are not arranged thematically, but according to the arrival of their first child. Catherine Wagner, in the introduction, calls this book a 'comforting corrective to those who feel isolated as mother-artists,' and Rebecca Wolff notes that 'poets who are mothers' often get asked, 'How has being a mother changed your writing?' Her own response is 'brutally literal . . . pragmatic as a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich on allergen-free bread': "My poems are a lot shorter now.' Not for Mothers Only is an odd title for a poetry anthology that seems to be precisely for mothers; it's wishful thinking on the part of the editors that anyone else is going to be much interested in an anthology dealing with the 'life-changing joys and rigors of motherhood.' Still, lovely language abounds in these pages and provocative phrases, and, as Eddy Arnold used to sing, 'Put them all together, they spell Mother, a word that means the world to me.'" -- The Washington Post

About the Author

CATHERINE WAGNER is the author of two books of poems, Miss America and Macular Hole. She is the winner of the Ruth Lilly Prize and was a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers Workshop. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she currently lives in Oxford, Ohio, where she has recently joined the faculty at Miami University.

REBECCA WOLFF is founding editor and publisher of Fence and Fence Books. She is also the author of two books of poems, Manderley and Figment, which won the National Poetry Series and the Barnard Women Poets Prize, respectively. She was born and raised in New York City and attended Bennington College, U-Mass Amherst, and the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop, as well as doing a brief stint at the University of Houston. She lives in Athens, New York, and teaches at the New School.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 546 pages
• Publisher: Fence Books; First Edition edition (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977106489
• ISBN-13: 978-0977106486
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #500,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine collection and very highly recommended, July 16, 2010

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not For Mothers Only (Paperback)

Motherhood is a journey that starts with a bit of excitement and never stops being so. "Not for Mothers Only: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing" is a discussion of motherhood, as a good collection of women present their own stories through verse on the child raising experience, providing a good dose of wisdom on the subject. For anyone who wants a bit of motherly wisdom, "Not for Mothers Only" is a fine collection and very highly recommended.