Heaven Halloween was my mother’s favorite holiday. My youngest brother was quite a pro gathering candy and money at a time when it was safe to go into strange buildings. Starting with the building nearest, he would fan out in all directions, returning to empty his pockets of jingly change, shopping bags of candy that carried my mother to heaven. My mother rarely left the house, sent us out each night in search of sweets. Sitting there in her easy chair watching TV she would wait for our return with a paper bag filled with two-for-one penny candies, marshmallow twists,…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Eve F.W. Linn Alexis Marie Chute’s memoir, Expecting Sunshine: A Journey of Grief, Healing and Pregnancy After Loss, documents with intimate detail and incident her recovery after the loss of a child. Chute’s book offers an authentic new voice and important insights to the literature on pregnancy loss and parental bereavement. The conspiracy of silence that surrounds this universal issue only increases the pain of those dealing with a tragedy and perpetuates the stigma that prevents open discussion about this painful subject. Chute is an award-winning artist, writer and filmmaker. She received…
Review by Marcene Gandolfo Many people associate the Tarot with fortune-telling and supernatural experience, but this is a somewhat limited perspective. Most historians believe that the Tarot first manifested as game-playing cards. Others view the cards as a study in archetypes and images. As we look through a deck of tarot cards, we can recognize—in the kings and queens, the hermit and devil, the illuminating sun and collapsing tower—images from a life, any life, even our own. The Tarot reveals characters and situations to which most people relate. In Ordinary Magic, Alison Stone celebrates…
Review by Issa M. Lewis Peonies are relatively fragile flowers, both to grow and to maintain in cut flower arrangements. They require the right balance of light and water to thrive, and have difficulty growing in close proximity with others. The fact that peonies were a favored flower of celebrated Czech writer Franz Kafka has not gone amiss for Judith Skillman; in her latest collection of poetry, Kafka’s Shadow, she frequently makes reference to it, alluding to Kafka’s own character and personal life, as well as his writings, in the process. For those well-versed in Kafka’s body of…
Review by Kerry Neville All too often, childbirth is depicted through the rosy lens of the birth’s afterglow: the mother gazing down at her swaddled infant at her breast, woozy and love drunk. Adrienne Rich argues, in Of Woman Born, that “As soon as a woman knows that a child is growing in her body, she falls under the power of theories, ideals, archetypes, descriptions of her new existence, almost none of which have come from other women.” Or, as Thais Nye Derich describes in her memoir, Second Chance: A Mother’s Quest for a Natural Birth After a Cesarean, she…
GUARDIAN: The female is the warrior, her armour protects her words, her children. She is steely, cold, an austere goddess. Mira Ho is a Nottinghamshire-born artist who studied at Derby University and is currently doing a Masters in Contemporary Arts Practice at Coventry University.She is a mixed media artist who deals with issues of female identity, motherhood and the uncanny, often in a domestic setting. The image represents the silenced female, who is bound by domestic servitude/motherhood; she is the mother artist the creator who is aware of her responsibilities.
GUARDIAN: The keeper that accepts all of one’s flaws, all of one’s magic and conjures the push to go beyond survive and instead thrive. Sophia Philip works in education, production and the arts. Trained as a visual artist, Ms. Philip uses any and all materials and includes social art and dance in her practice. Ms. Philip works for educational initiatives that make art accessible and a way to explore one’s identity.
A GUARDIAN is the protector and keeper of all things valuable and cherished. Liz Leggett’s paintings and drawings range from abstract and representational to the space in-between, where imagery is suggested but left open for interpretation. Currently, she is working on drawings that depict the masculine culture of American sports. Liz’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has participated in numerous artist-in-residence programs. She received her BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College and MFA at the Maine College of Art.
Review by Lara Lillibridge Carol Smallwood has published numerous titles of nonfiction and poetry—over five dozen according to this book’s About the Author page. Smallwood’s Women on Poetry: Tips on Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching is on Poets & Writers Magazine List of Best Books for Writers. She has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and won the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Award; Franklin-Christoph Poetry Contest Winner; Eric Hoffer Award for Prose; ByLine 1st Place for First Chapter of a Novel. Thirteenth Annual International Ultra-Short Competition Honorable Mention, 2016. (www.pw.org) Interweavings is a collection of 43 essays, organized…
Review by Lisa Taylor Joni B. Cole leads creative writing workshops. Her book, Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive is “strongly recommended” by Library Journal. She is the author of the personal essay collection Another Bad-Dog Book: Essays on Life, Love, and Neurotic Human Behavior. Cole founded the Writer’s Center of White River Junction, New Hampshire, serves on the faculty of the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and teaches at the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Dartmouth College. She’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a United States Artist Fellowship. Good Naked is an often self-deprecating…