Mom Egg Review / MER VOX Best of the Net Nominations 2021 Prose Keshni Naicker Washington – Blue From “Mother is Speaking” Folio Curated by Keisha-Gaye Anderson Sophie Rhem – Am I A Mother I Am From “Range of Motherhood” Folio Curated by J.L. Scott Fiction Naomi J. Williams – No Doors From “Range of Motherhood” Folio Curated by J.L. Scott Jennifer Dickinson – No One’s Darling From “My Mother” Folio Curated by MER VOX Poetry Tina Cane – When the Let Down Was Good From “Healing and Recovery” Folio Curated by Jenn Martelli and Cindy Veach Joan Kwon Glass…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Lisa C. Taylor This new resource book on the novella form opens with examples of familiar novellas like Ethan Frome and The House on Mango Street. Divided into sections that will be helpful for any fiction writer, the book provides practical step-by-step information for writing in this form. Each chapter offers a journaling section with detailed practice prompts. The author also advises aspiring writers to write fifteen minutes a day without stopping. In the first section, the author both defines fiction and provides ways to approach writing a novella. “As a genre, as a way of…
September 15, 2021 MER VOX Quarterly – Fall 2021 In this issue, two folios of work focus on aspects of women’s lives and motherhood. “Fifty Plus and Fabulous: We Write Our Stories” is a rich folio of work by poets illuminating the experiences, challenges, and wisdom of that demographic in surprising ways. Curator JP Howard notes, “This folio centers, celebrates and uplifts the powerful words of age fifty and plus women writers who are also Mamas, because our stories/our words/our narratives deserve to be celebrated and uplifted…” “Mother Figures: Other Mothers” is the first of a series of…
Fifty Plus and Fabulous: We Write our Stories! A MER VOX Folio Curated by JP Howard Featured Writers Catherine Gigante-Brown H.E. Fisher Shalewa Mackall Lynne McEniry Theta Pavis Martina Green McGowan Cheryl J. Fish Kathy Engel Annis Cassells Golda Solomon Carol Dorf JP Howard This folio centers, celebrates and uplifts the powerful words of age fifty and plus women writers who are also Mamas, because our stories//our words/our narratives deserve to be celebrated and uplifted. I am a proud 50+ Mama writer and I created this particular folio because there have been days when I don’t feel that our…
Catherine Gigante-Brown Poem to My Younger Self Dear Cat, You couldn’t possibly imagine how it would turn out. Sometimes you wished you would die from the pain of not belonging, of not being like anyone else. But this uniqueness, this difference, became your strength, your sword. You couldn’t possibly know that you would find love— several times— but one that really mattered. Hang in there; it’s all worth it. You’ll see. I promise. You couldn’t possibly imagine how hard it would be sometimes but also that it would be equally as wonderful. You are so incredibly powerful. There is…
H.E. Fisher When My Child Tells Me He is Her I give her the dress that no longer fits, take the waist in like breath— a fabric my hands wove, dye blue and pink baby blankets the colors of mars clay, moon rock, moss. Welcome her to her universe of being, shake day awake, rise and shine the silver off the cusp. An older mother grows too, sees the child for who she is, loves her, loves the love she gave her self. She made new weather. It was always her birth. Wish in an Empty…
Shalewa Mackall Deeply Resourced My great-grandmother hugged herself and rocked by the door whenever I headed out. How many years did the sound of her muttering wash over before I heard softly: cuídate, cuídate bien mija”? she who wore the boast and truth of her names: Mama, Ma Maceda, Maximina Mena—the last of these means: the Greatest Woman of Ore or Mineral— was never an easy woman, only thing she held tighter than a grudge was her legacy: Original Seeker, Dancing Dream, Precious Gift, an Honorable Man to Die For. Our names in translation are praise songs. She taught…
Lynne McEniry Covid dreaming I thought I was done being pregnant kids in their 30s no period for the past two years but these Covid dreams are so real they repeat themselves so real that my uterus is still contracting come daylight still trying to forget that in this dream nature chose to end it early and why I don’t even know and how I got dream pregnant in the first place I can’t quite recall in the dream pain I’m thinking how it’s supposed to be that once the babies are delivered bodies eventually forget the pain and…
Theta Pavis The Shell and The Bone Waiting for the x-ray I lay still on the table. My little body patient and wondering what the doctor will see when she looks at my bones, stolen too early of their calcium like my mother was taken too early from me. It makes you weak. At night I walk through the steamy summer streets encouraging my skeleton to do its job. I stay flat on my back and it’s easy to just close my eyes. Think about the kale and sardines I have at home to build bone and the fact…
Martina Green McGowan Crafting Beyond the Half-Century Mark Time and Age Time and age come with a certain sense of freedom. Freedom of thought, more risk-taking, a different perspective gained from a long view of life, its attendant difficulties, and blessings. They grant most of us with a new level of grace, mercy, and forgiveness for ourselves and for others. There is a sense of urgency to getting our work done. But this is a far cry from the panic sensation we may have felt in our youth. Arriving Late We sometimes become overwhelmed or even despondent that…