Poem of the Month July 2022 Teresa Tumminello Brader (W)hole Filling one of her orifices with one part of his body is no longer enough. He yearns to crawl inside her. He wants to miniaturize his whole body, insert it into a less obvious entry point—for instance, the fenestra of her ear— then slide down the walls of her capillaries and swim in the bayous of her blood. If she learns how to shrink before he does, he’ll put her in his pocket, stroke the whole of her with the pad of his thumb all day…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Dylan Ward The uncharted territory of parenthood is both wildly unforgiving and rewarding. With Blame It on the Serpent, Susan Vespoli explores the joys, fears, and sorrows of parenting. Traversing time and place, she threads together an affecting contemplation of her identity as a mother through the lens of raw pain, from divorce or blistering conflicts with addiction, amid her children’s coming-of-age. Vespoli earned an MFA in Creative Writing after a “mid-life explosion.” She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and author of two chapbooks. A mother who deeply loved her children while bearing the burdens and scars…
Review by Celia Jeffries Ellen Meeropol is a fearless writer. When she picks up her pen and follows her characters, she goes to places and situations lesser writers might avoid: a young pregnant woman awaiting trial (House Arrest, 2011); an innocent academic pulled aside by airport security and incarcerated in a secret holding cell (On Hurricane Island, 2015); a young man walking the blurred reality line of man versus nature (Kinship of Clover, 2017); two sisters estranged by political choices and actions (Her Sister’s Tattoo, 2020). In her latest book, The Lost Women of Azalea Court (September 2022), Meeropol’s characters…
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, in dissent, and to help support women’s rights and health, Mom Egg Review will donate all profits from sale of MER’s The Body issue to Planned Parenthood, through 7/4/22. MER 10 “The Body” $5
Review by Sara Epstein In her debut collection, Jordemoder: Poems of a Midwife, Ingrid Andersson takes us on a journey through her life as a Swedish daughter who becomes a midwife, mother, invandrare (immigrant), and shares reflections about home. Andersson lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She has practiced as a home-birth nurse midwife for over 20 years. She has studied poetry and literature in four languages, as well as anthropology, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has appeared in Ars Medica, Eastern Iowa Review, Mom Egg…
Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy & Earthquakes by Jazmina Barrera, Translated by Christina MacSweeney Review by Kimberly Lee As is custom, Jazmina Barrera’s latest work begins with a dedication: “To whom it concerns (Silvestre, Alejandro, and Tere) and to whomsoever it may concern.” That last phrase captures a subtle proposition, that the contents of Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy & Earthquakes likely involve all of us, whether child or parent. Translated by Christina MacSweeney, the book and its subject matter are indeed universal, with undulating musings that sooth and sustain, like a lullaby. The result is a candid…
Review by Lara Lillibridge XO is an autobiographical essay spanning 157 pages, divided into chapters. It is Rauch’s second book. Her first, What Shines from It, published by Alternating Current Press, won the Electric Book Award. Rauch holds an MFA from Pacific University and resides in Massachusetts, where she is an independent editor and writing instructor. XO investigates “mythologies of romantic love, connections to the divine, & the death/rebirth cycle.” (SaraRauch.com) Once upon a time, I fell in love with another woman and set out to build a life with her. Once upon a time, I fell in love…
Summer / Girl – A Literary Folio Featuring poetry, fiction, and prose by Richelle Buccilli – Dear Backyard Honeysuckle Vanessa Napolitano – Yellow Cabinet Emily Patterson – Near the Fourth of July in a Pandemic Kelly Sue White – River Summer Terri Linton – Boogie Down Girls Tiffany Sciacca – P.F. 1982 Elizabeth Fergason – Behindland/August Jennifer Jean – Nature Quinn Rennerfeldt – Goodwill In The Era of Girls Mary Lou Buschi – Spotting Susanna Rich – Last Night Before Viet Nam D.W. McKinney – Sun Tea Nicole Callihan – Summer Sorrows Lindsay Adkins – Untitled Elisabeth Adwin Edwards…
Richelle Buccilli Dear backyard honeysuckle Past the fresh lumber of the new wood fence, past the heat of late May sweating on our foreheads, past smoke, past clay, past dirt, past even the diesel fumes, you stay. As if you could become a tree, I want to wrap my arms around you, live there in a sweet weight of love so familiar it crushes me. I had been searching for the right word, any word to name the thing I couldn’t get enough of. My husband behind me, lifts his chin in understanding. Oh, yellow bell. Oh, gold diamond…
Vanessa Napolitano Yellow Cabinet You painted the drawers with gilt handles yellow, out in the garden. Seven months pregnant, a neckerchief fashioned into a hat. Black and orange paisley in your hair and your hair long and chestnut. Your shoulders and neck pinked. The weeds grew high around you. The growing seemed to go on even as you painted, as if they came up and up with the brush. The heat painted along, everything blurred and wet. How immobile it feels to be seven months pregnant. How static the heat, but it can only have been late May. You left…