Donna Vorreyer MAKING TEA, I REMEMBER A LONG AGO SUMMER Honey hanging from the thickened dipper becomes a stream of spit from my teasing brother’s mouth, summer heat and hose water shimmering the scene becomes my mother’s favorite scrimshaw pendant swinging as she leans down to separate us with her smile and half-hum This is the hinge of memory: a slim wooden stick becoming the paddle of a canoe to row me across the brain lake and into the reeds, singing a hosanna: what was still is and will always be sweet Donna Vorreyer is the author…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Sarah Lightman – “Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully” “Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully,” paintings by Sarah Lightman, is showing in the UK at Chester Visual Arts in July. Lightman explains that these are “…paintings…of familiar figures, once painted by ‘masters’ of Western art, and trapped in scenes from my own life: Bathsheba is tired of the dishes; Eve’s lost in the pile of laundry; Mary struggles with parenting and experiences an unexpected perimenopausal bleed on holiday. In this exhibition of carefully observed watercolour paintings, I plait religion, humour, and satire to spotlight women’s lives, struggles, and ageing bodies.” Featured Paintings…
MER Bookshelf – July 2025 Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley Catherine Gigante-Brown, Immigrant Hearts, Volossal, March 2025, literary fiction (novel Immigrant Hearts is a vintage love story that stretches across more than 40 years, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Antonio and Luisa are two lonely Italian garment industry workers who meet by chance in the wilds of Brooklyn. These gentle souls build a life together, chasing dreams, weathering loss, finding refuge in the beauty of opera, books and each other. Inspired by true events, richly imagined by the author. The first part is told from the POV of…
Review by Angela Williamson Thoughtfully curated, Commodore Rookery, by Christy Lee Barnes, captures and recasts the first year of parenthood. Through the lens of the rookery, where the speaker goes for inspiration, insight, and wonder, the familiar challenges of parenting an infant—sleepless nights, feeding difficulties, relationship changes—become transcendent. The mother’s identity, rather than being merely lost or blurred, metamorphosizes—expands beyond the self, through time and across species. Despite its lofty reaches and the recurring rookery visits, the collection itself is solidly grounded. Although not explicitly stated, the poems seem to be arranged chronologically, opening with “Late Postpartum Dream Sequence”…
Reviewed by Susan Blumberg-Kason I first became familiar with Jennifer Lang’s writing just after she published her first book, Places We Left Behind. It included all the ingredients I enjoy in a memoir: a cross-cultural story, an unusual structure, and settings far from home. In Lang’s case, she is known for writing very short chapters that still manage to pack in as much content as found in more traditionally structured memoirs. Lang met and married a French Israeli man decades ago and wrote about the many ways in which she navigated her international marriage, including where they chose to…
Review by Lara Lillibridge Mothers and Other Fictional Characters by Nicole Graev Lipson is smart, sexy, highly relatable book. Lipson’s prose delves into what it means to be a woman, mother, and daughter and had me exclaiming, “Yes! Exactly!” audibly as I read. It’s the kind of intelligent read that sparks conversations—the perfect buddy read or book club pick. Lipson has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, selected for The Best American Essays anthology, and shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review, River Teeth, Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review…
Review by Emily Webber Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation, Sarah Yahm’s debut novel, follows the unforgettable Rosenberg family—consisting of Leon, Louise, and their daughter Lydia —over forty years as they navigate life, especially in the face of a terminal diagnosis. Despite the heavy subject matter, this novel remains irreverent, quirky, and funny. As Louise learns she has a genetic illness that affects Ashkenazi Jews, she agonizes over the impact on her daughter, both her ability to be a parent as her body becomes more disabled, and wanting to spare her daughter from becoming her caretaker or witnessing her decline.…
Submissions Are Open Until 7/15 MER will be open until July 15, 2025 for literary and art submissions to our annual print issue on the theme of Mother and Family. All submissions are through Submittable. We publish poetry (up to 3 poems, no more than 5 pages), and fiction, creative prose/nonfiction, and hybrid works (up to 1000 words) on mothering or motherhood. We also seek mother-themed art. You need not be a mother to submit. Our calendar conforms to Eastern Time. The theme of this issue will be “Mother and Family.” What We’re Looking For: Work that focuses on a mother’s interactions with other…
Tamar Jacobs GOOD WHOLESOME AMERICAN THING I sat away from the street on a curb mostly hidden behind a bush to allow them the illusion of independence and I heard people tell them, my sons, 7 and 9, so many things. People asked what they planned to do with the money they made and some tested their math as they asked for change, and some asked if they’d done their homework and one told one of them he could take off his mask because it was safe, we’re outside, and one asked my other son if he had…