I believe in Literary Citizenship. I really do. I believe in it in caps, as you see. To me this term has meant writing and sharing my literature, as well as advocating for literature through attending and creating literary festivals/conferences/readings. Case in point, I’m part of an extremely active committee for the 2011 Massachusetts Poetry Festival—happening May 13-14th right here in my little, slightly wackadoo but lovely nonetheless, tourist town of Salem, Mass.—and the organizing has really been kicking my butt. I co-direct a performance series as well (and adjunct, and mother two kidlings, and workout, and am a wifey…
Author: Mom Egg Review
MamaBlogger365 – Mother-Centric Lit by Marjorie Tesser on the Museum of Motherhood Blog I edit a publication called The Mom Egg, an annual literary collection of poetry, fiction, creative prose and art. The Mom Egg publishes works by “mothers about everything, and everyone about mothers and motherhood.” Why is a mother-centric literary publication important? The demands, pleasures, and monopolization of time and mental energy of motherhood can be overwhelming. How does this affect us as artists? Creative mothers need a welcoming venue that fosters artistic expression. While the media tends to homogenize mothers into broad classifications (soccer moms, tiger moms,…
These are the rules regarding glitter. Listen up. The glitter has been placed in view but out of reach. This is deliberate. The “glitter tray,” the cardboard box originally designated for shaking and shining, is no longer available to you. Technically, it is not a tray if you decide to ride it down the stairs. More like a sled. No, that doesn’t mean you can go sledding in the house. No, I don’t think it’s cute that you left a shiny trail. No, I don’t like slugs. Yes, Mr. Dyson is a very good British vacuum, but every appliance has…
“Your Mom Has A Rockin’ Bod”. That’s what the handsome surfer looking dude told my eleven- and seven- year old daughters about me – their forty-eight year old mother. It was December 2004. Seven months after my husband said he wanted a divorce. Five Months After He Moved Out. Four months after a Palm Springs Hotel offered me an irresistible package deal for a Christmas stay. Three months after I looked up an old boyfriend David… who happened to be living in Palm Springs. Ten minutes after being in the hotel hot tub in an unusually cold California December. The…
Tilda Swinton made small talk as we strolled through quiet, cobbled streets to the door of her garden apartment. We followed her in, my husband and I, and were met by a tortoise-shell cat. A decorative railing marked off a section of the main room raised like a stage she might perform on for a room full of guests, or for no one at all, for herself alone. Were we rude to have barged in? She seemed not to mind; she kept talking as she kicked off her shoes and flung her shawl on an easy chair. The smell of…
Amongst the things I did not realize about having four children was the fact that there’d be so much stuff to manage. I’m not even talking about the doctors’ appointments or school forms (there are those, too, groaning to-do lists’ worth). I’m talking about physical objects. I’m not a terribly orderly person. Here I need clothing for each child—and must shepherd clothing from the first to the next to the next and so on. We are playing with a baby doll stroller and games I have no idea how to play. We are in the land of Itsy Bitsy Spider…
When you see the word “choice,” you might first think about the emphasis of the “pro-choice” proponents on free will, as opposed to the sanctity of life that its opponents emphasize or the privacy aspect that was the basis for Roe v. Wade. I think about that too. As a college writing teacher, I find it to be a powerful rhetorical choice, since we do value free will, particularly as Americans. The idea of free will is closely related to the American ideals of individual freedom and democratic government; at the same time, the vast majority of Americans self-define as…
Two years after my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, my brother and I moved her from her house in River Vale, New Jersey, to a nearby dementia unit called Memory Lane. I wish I could say it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but since then she has continued to decline, and we’ve transferred her to a nursing home. A few months after my mother was settled into Memory Lane, my brother and I put my mother’s house up for sale. My brother asked me to come by and help him sort what we would save from what we…
The Mom Egg Vol. 8 2010 “Lessons” Selections Get the Issue LANGUAGE CLASS (written on Qualla Boundary; for C.M.) Kimberly L. Becker Little by little we are reclaiming the words Just as the land was once large, so, too, our voice Some words lost on the Trail have been found They lived hidden in baskets, in pockets, in the very tassels of corn (Selu, Selu) Now the words live again See? When I say nogwo it is now, both the now of then and the now of not yet The words work secret medicine and strong, forming us…
In Bali, where I live in a big bamboo and grass house, “Ibu” means mother… I am a mom, to 8 people ages 4 to 34! I am also a midwife, which gives me the astonishing day and night attendance to miracles. …(A) dear sister~writer living in Paris, urged me to look at The Mom Egg… and I have, and it’s an amazing project. The title and the graphic are perfect, for as a midwife who has squatted by the birth of a few thousand souls, I can tell you, it is not only the Baby who is Born… The…