MER Books for Review – Winter 2023 Our book reviews are approximately 750 words, and are published online at momeggreview.com. Please refer to our Book Review Guidelines for more information. If you’re interested in reviewing a book on our list, or another book that fits our parameters, please email us at [email protected].
Author: Mom Egg Review
Happy to be listed on Trish Hopkinson’s bloglist of “Feminist Literary Magazines”once again! And we’re in great company! Check out the list at the link above.
Review by Lara Lillibridge Diane Lockward is the editor of three other craft books and four books of poetry. Winner of the Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, a poetry fellowship from the New Jersey Council of the Arts and a Woman of Achievement Award, she is the founder and publisher of Terrapin Books, a small press dedicated to poetry. With 114 contributing poets, The Strategic Poet is the equivalent of attending a week-long writing conference in book form. The book is divided into thirteen sections, and begins with a craft essay by award-winning poets, including Ellen Bass, Danusha Laméri,…
Review by Kimberly Lee At first glance, Meg Pokrass’ latest flash fiction collection Spinning to Mars—a slim volume of approximately 70 shorts—appears to be a quick read. Yet the book, which takes readers on a journey of intimate and common themes, is best appreciated when read slowly, even aloud, as one might read a selection of poetry. Each piece, written in Pokrass’ characteristic engaging style, seems to unwrap itself on its own terms, prompting an unhurried, satisfying digestion. Spinning to Mars follows Pokrass’ previous Alice In Wonderland Syndrome as her seventh compilation of flash fiction, comparable in acclaim with…
Mother Figures: Mothers and Children A folio of poetry and prose. The experience of having and nurturing children can inform a mother’s view of herself. Every mother is also a child. These poems and writing explore this primal relationship. Featured: E.J. Antonio Jerrice J. Baptiste Lao Rubert Sarah Dickenson Snyder Margaret D. Stetz Kelli Stevens Kane Hilde Weisert Lisa Briana Williams More “Mother Figures” folios: Other Mothers Storied Mothers Mother in Objects The Mother Role Image by Tara Carpenter Estrada, “Feeling Wilted” Artist Statement This artwork was created with paper bags that were recycled from grocery pick-ups during the…
E.J. Antonio Matriarch someone sang for me from behind her teeth the sound of blood’s rush called me from myself into myself a body an earth song of love & bitterness someone sang for me deep in Virginia pines a hymn razored the sky vermillion pushed the wind to shove me down a snake-filled road fighting for my life someone sang for me pulled all my am & am not from origin’s darkest beginnings melody flowed through me planted itself in me i heard a soprano rustling leaves in my ear someone sang for me rattled the question in…
Jerrice J. Baptiste The Solution Her belly grew like a basketball not filled with air but with water where a wonderful creature was protected inside a hard like shell. She wanted a baby boy genius. She followed her own formula daily to increase the fetus’ intelligence. While listening to classical music, she dabbed in water colors as she sipped lavender tea. In the morning she strolled the local botanical garden, smelling each flower and introducing her baby to the name and scent of each one…this is a pink rose, an Asian Lily, a hyacinth… She inhaled, then walked to…
Lao Rubert Asking Your Permission for Maryam, born Feb 5, 2020 You’ve arrived. Ears, elbows, fingers precisely in place, controlling your world from a tiny perch. The news is blaring as your eyes flicker open bringing greetings from a different dimension. From whence did you come? May we bend down before you? May we ask your permission to stare? May we share your softness, your complaints, your eagerness to eat? May we sit in your space, absorb the being you’ve been becoming? May we stand in your presence, wash your feet, admire your lashes, touch the fluff of…
Sarah Dickenson Snyder Finding You Imagine that we could pick our mothers that there was a parade of them walking by and we stand behind some gentle barrier to watch and select from the mothers who carry spools of thread and pins pursed in their lips the ones whose fingers smell of onions and garlic the resolute who iron their sheets the scent of steamed cotton following them like perfume the strong and rural with chickens and goats close behind the ones with buckets of plastic dinosaurs and dolls weighted in their arms the dreamers with moons for…
Kelli Stevens Kane Moon Rocks (Mom, 1969) Oh! (wistfully) The moon rocks. Okay your dad was out of town. And while we were watching them come out of the rocket and jump down to the moon [on TV] I said, “I want you to remember this.” And I drove up the street to the park. And it was a full moon. It was gorgeous. So I parked the car and I said, “You see the moon? And you’re goin’, “M O O N. M O O N.” I said, “That’s the moon. Those people are up there.” And…