Review by Ivy Rutledge – Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is a refreshing voice in the realm of parenting books and spiritual autobiography. Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting blends memoir, theology, and humor in a way that will leave you with an enriched outlook on your life with children of any age. As the mother of two young sons, Ruttenberg experiences the full range of chaos and joy that they offer her. She skillfully weaves discussions of theology through her descriptions of daily life, showing readers how her Jewish…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Michelle Wilbert – As I completed Atoosa Grey’s organically lush Black Hollyhock, I thought immediately of the nearly platonic ideal evoked by Mary Oliver in “Sometimes”: “Instructions for living a life: / Pay attention. / Be astonished. / Tell about it.” In Grey’s fine work, we are led through a robust yet gentle walk through the quotidian mysteries—the sacred and sublime that are always infused within the mundane by anyone willing to see and respond to them and then willing to allow into consciousness. Of course, to do that well, one must admit to “astonishment,” and Grey nimbly…
Review by Judith Swan – When the 19th century’s Anna Laetitia Barbauld addressed the less-than-classical theme of motherhood, the terms “sentiment” and “romanticized” were not the pejoratives they are today. Indeed, the cultivation of sentiment or emotion was a middle class virtue. For Barbauld to sing her love for her children was quintessentially poetic. But what Barbauld could write to an anticipated child For thee the nurse prepares her lulling songs, The eager matrons count the lingering day; But far the most thy anxious parent longs On thy soft cheek a mother’s kiss to lay. (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43617) we today cannot—even with a…
Mom Egg Review Vol. 14 “Change” – Welcome to Mom Egg Review Vol. 14! This issue explores “Change.” Change can be a lightning bolt, a bud’s unfurling, or the inexorable melt of ice caps. A body swells with pregnancy, bends with illness, shrinks with age; a couple evolves or severs; a child slowly cycles through a myriad of incarnations. Or tornado, bomb, gunshot. Change is acute and cyclical, rhythmic and cataclysmic, personal and political, abstract and physical, natural and un-, absolute and incremental, often too gradual or too precipitous. Change is not just one-directional flow, something that happens to us;…
Tsaurah Litzky Artist’s Statement – I’m a widely published poet who also writes fiction, memoir, erotica, plays and commentary. Four years ago when an injury kept me indoors for the winter I started making collages. I consider each collage a poem. They have been exhibited in group shows at the Jackie Lima Gallery in Easton Pennsylvania, and Gallery Gaia in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. In April 2014, I had my first solo show at Gallery Gaia and a second show is scheduled for Spring 2016. The forthcoming Outlaw Bible of American Art will contain a selection of my collages. Contact [email protected].
Nadia Colburn THE PHYSICAL WORLD For nine months I anticipated, as the other end of pain, a revelation: a world turned inside out. Each inch I grew marked a promise: my present physical certainty, my approaching release. And, indeed, torn open, I gave birth to the end of ideas. Beyond pain was born no understanding, beyond understanding was revealed no new knowing but another body, robust, which no thought set screaming, purple faced, infuriated at air, and no thought moved closer to my breast, and no thought closed its thinly lidded round brown eyes, so soon worn out by…
Review by Issa M. Lewis – A first-time expectant mother looks for a roadmap as she prepares for her pregnancy, her birth, and her parenting. She asks questions of her friends, her sisters, her own mother; she mines the internet’s trove of parenting websites and reads every book that crosses her path. She searches for the clichéd “what to expect.” However, for some women, the journey to motherhood—from trying to conceive, to birth, and early years of raising their children—does not fall into the bounds of “what to expect.” Multiples Illuminated serves as roadmap for those women—women who…
Review by Libby Maxey – I’m rather new to the world of small fiction (also known as flash fiction, micro fiction, short shorts, sudden fiction, quick fiction—and there may be more names that I’ve yet to run across). As an established literary genre, however, small fiction is still fairly new itself; this is only the second year that it has had its own “best-of” anthology. Nevertheless, this collection features an international crowd of much-published and much-awarded authors, and it feels absolutely packed with material, even though the forty-five stories included would amount to fewer than a hundred pages in…
Mothers Are Making Art A collaborative project among Mom Egg Review, the ProCreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood, and The Mother Magazine, Mothers Are Making Art (M.A.M.A.) pairs work by mother visual artists with words from Mom Egg Review writers. The project recently reached its one-year anniversary and is still going strong. Follow the links below to view the collaborations. 8/1/16 Art by Megan Wynne Poem by Susan Vespoli, “Sonogram” http://www.procreateproject.com/ 7/1/16 M.A.M.A. Issue 18 Art by Alex March http://www.procreateproject.com/m-a-m-a-issue-n-18-alex-march/ 6/1/16 M.A.M.A. Anniversary Issue One Year Anniversary Art with Susan Vespoli’s “Sonogram” from MER 14. https://mommuseum.org/2016/06/01/one-year-of-m-a-m-a-mothers-are-making-art-click/ 5/1/16 M.A.M.A. Issue 17 Art by…
Mom Egg Review Vol.13 With “Compassionate Action” Folio 2015 Paper, 145 pages. At the center—fittingly, at the heart—of this issue is a special poetry folio, edited by Jennifer Jean, focused on the theme of “Compassionate Action”. The poems in this section explore and inspire amelioration through action with good will, understanding, kindness, and generosity. Featuring work by Colleen Michaels, Beth Bosworth, Louie Clay, Megan Merchant, E.J. Antonio. Editor in Chief Marjorie Tesser Compassionate Action Folio Editor Jennifer Jean Reader Jennifer Martelli Readers for Vol. 13 Jessie Bacho Patrice Boyer Claeys Elizabeth Lara Jennifer Martelli Ana C.H. Silva Becky Tipper…