My children make myths in the games they play. My daughter holds out a book of fairy tales and she and her friend become princesses lost in Pennsylvania (I have no idea why that state—it’s not in the fairy tale book) and her friend Santiago puts on a dress that his parents won’t allow him to wear at home because boys don’t wear dresses but right now they are only princesses and there is no one who will judge or make fun of them, not in this mythic Pennsylvania arisen from the hardbound book they’ve laid on the floor and…
Author: Mom Egg Review
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series accepts nominations for inclusion of works published in literary magazines and books during the previous year. Here are this year’s Mom Egg Review Pushcart Prize Nominees Fiction Lore Segal, “Divorce” Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, “Sangria IV” Poetry Crystal Karlberg, “Dream in Blue” Elizabeth Garcia, “What to Expect when You’re Expecting” Megan Merchant, “Working the Night Shift” Rebecca Hart Olander, “Malum” Congratulations and best of luck to our nominees!
Review by Ros Howell “The word for house and tomb / is the same, pronounced per” says the narrator in the entirety of the poem “Hieroglyphs, Reread” (63). In this haunting collection of poems, the first of former journalist Catherine Woodard, the author captures beautifully the claustrophobic and suffocating world of a struggling family in 1960s North Carolina. The book offers up to us a child’s eye view of mental illness, addiction and the bereavement when parents are emotionally and psychologically absent. The title of this collection refers to the Egyptian burial ritual of the same name, as explained…
Suzanne Kamata Suzanne Kamata’s fourth novel The Mermaids of Lake Michigan was published earlier this year, and won a Silver IPPY Award. She has also recently published a novella-length travelogue, A Girl’s Guide to the Islands, about exploring Japan’s Inland Sea with her daughter who has multiple disabilities. http://www.suzannekamata.com Peg Alford Pursell Peg Alford Pursell is featured in Poets & Writers magazine’s 2nd annual “5 over 50” for her debut publication of Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, reviewed in MER by Libby Maxwell here. Her essay is available in the print edition of the magazine, and an…
Our friend and longtime MER community member Fay Chiang has passed on/transitioned. I don’t usually share too much that’s personal online, but others’ generous words have helped me, so in that same spirit here are some thoughts. I met Fay through Bob Holman and Bowery Poetry. I worked with her on her book, 7 Continents 9 Lives and we became friends. On the cover of the book is the painting of hers, of a mountain against a blue sky. In the foreground, on a flower-dotted field lies a girl—a dress of soft red, white headscarf, and black boots. Next to her a white…
From The Mom Egg Vol. 12 – 2014 Fay Chiang REINVENTION The fall comes The daughter leaves for Spain with her partner to teach English and then travel North Africa and the Mediterranean— happy and healthy and young my heart urges them: Go! with great joy Twenty years surviving the breast cancer I was so afraid would not let me see my four year old girl grow up and now only after her graduation from college do I realize how long I have held my breath As the eldest I took care of my father when he had colon cancer…
Estelle Bruno was already in her 80’s when she began contributing work to Mom Egg. Her work was known for its economy and wit. She passed away in Oct. 2017. Here is a poem from The Mom Egg Vol.6. Estelle Bruno Hug a Tree, Lola “Hug a tree, Lola,” I said explaining that the tree would be responsive— it would lower its branches and hug her back. But Lola chose the wrong tree, its trunk large, rigid and unyielding. Her arms reached only half way around. She never got the warm response.
Review by Barbara Ellen Sorensen In The Short List of Certainties, Lois Roma-Deeley compels the reader to open her eyes and witness the beauty of life. Life is after all the only sacred thing we have and to miss any of it is to miss love itself. It is not by chance that Roma-Deeley uses an epigraph that demands we read hope into life’s darkest corners. The epigraph reads: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”…
Review by Tessara Dudley As part of a year-long series of chapbooks about humankind’s relationship to animals, poet Nicelle Davis and illustrator Cheryl Gross have collaborated on this entry, which explores the precarious place of elephants in the world of today. According to the publisher, Elephants “makes the leap that killing elephants marks the death of humanity … something of empathy and love dies with these sentinel beings.” The opening poem asks, “do you know there’ll soon be no / more elephants?” (3). This question follows the reader through the book, imploring the reader to pay attention to the…
Review by Margie Shaheed While reading Mandatory Evacuation Zone I was drawn in by the lush journey that spans generations to familiar and unfamiliar places. I take liberty and use the word places here figuratively as well as literally because through the use of memoir these poems tackle such life issues as grief, loss, chronic illness, growing old and divorce. My favorite poems were those set against the back drop of New York City where “pedestrians start moving before the walk signal even flashes.” (94) Mandatory Evacuation Zone has a political edge. We find that many of the poems…