Catherine Lu Mama Bird Catherine Lu is an Emmy-nominated arts and culture producer in Houston. She covers the local arts scene and produces the National Poetry Month series “Voices and Verses,” which is an archive of interviews and poems of Houston-area poets. She works for Houston Public Media and has contributed to NPR.
Author: Mom Egg Review
Point-Counterpoint by Linda Murphy Marshall Flip sides of the same coin. Yin and yang. Point, counterpoint. Sisters. Besides their diminutive frames, their oversized intellects, having mothered four children each, they had little in common. Picture my mother. Movie star gorgeous in her prime: soft, permed brunette curls framing her face, shirtwaist dresses that highlighted her slim waist. Petite: Five-foot-two, eyes-of-blue, she’d remind us in rare moments of levity, parroting lyrics from the popular 1920s song. Sophisticated: in tight control of her emotions, her words, her actions. Reserved: many topics off-limits for discussion, such as sharing feelings, insecurities, problems, fears—both…
May Day by Heather Haldeman “Hurray! Hurray! It’s the 1st of May. Outdoor sex starts today!” “Mom!” “I know,” she laughed. “You wanted the mother with the bun in the back, the Peter Pan collar and the cross around the neck.” “It’s just what a thing to say to your daughter?” “Relax, you’re an adult. Loosen up.” That was how she greeted me as an adult every May 1st on our morning phone call. Marilyn was not the mother I’d wanted as a child. She wasn’t like any of my friend’s mothers. They drove station wagons. She was in…
Role Models? In this folio, our third in our series on “Mother Figures,” poets and prose writers grapple with different aspects of the role of “Mother.” They recall the parenting they received and investigate its nexus with the people and parents they became. In some cases, the speakers discover role models elsewhere; in others, maturity provides new insights into their mothers not only as they performed that role but as individuals. Patrice de Palma – A Mother’s Love Comes in All Shapes and Sizes Heather Haldeman – May Day Lisa Hase-Jackson – Her Own Girl Joan Leotta…
Review by Michelle Panik Kids and Cocktails Don’t Mix is a memoir of life in the highly desirable Larchmont area of Los Angeles, a place where name-dropping—of people, of neighborhoods, of private schools—is a sport and appearances are everything. Beginning in the 1960’s and unfolding chronologically, daughter Heather tells of a family furiously polishing the facades of a reality that readers quickly learn is drastically different. With a philandering father, a spouse-pleasing mother, and two completely opposite daughters, the Eatons are hardly a cohesive, thriving family. Younger sister Heather is an overweight, poor student forever trying to win her…
Damaged Like Me: Essays on love, harm, and transformation by Kimberly Dark Review by Celia Jeffries “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” –Muriel Rukeyser The last book that split my world open was Christina Crawford’s 1978 book Mommie Dearest. ‘How could she say such horrible things about her mother?” was the initial overwhelming response to the book. People didn’t believe her story, but I did. I believed every word. At the time the term ‘child abuse’ did not exist. It took one woman telling the truth about her life…
Review by Lara Lillibridge Lost Girls is about missing girls, neglected girls, girls with missing mothers or fathers, girls who mature into women who lose their own children, or grow into obscurity as they age. The seventeen short stories, each between 3-16 pages long, are brief enough to read on a lunch break or during nap time, yet long enough to be rife with tension and often contain a haunting, mournful quality. The girls and women demand to be seen and remembered, and their stories remain long after the last page is closed. Lost Girls is a finalist for…
Review by Sherre Vernon Cindy Veach earned her MFA from the University of Oregon where she was an assistant poetry editor for Northwest Review. Veach is the author of two poetry collections, including Her Kind, and Gloved Against Blood. She has also published a chapbook, Innocents and is the coauthor of the script, Imprisoned! 1692. Her poems have appeared widely, in publications such as the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI and Prairie Schooner. Veach’s poem, “This Patch Where the Light Cannot Reach,” was selected for the Philip Booth Poetry Prize and her sonnet crown, “Witch Kitsch,” won for the…
Mother Figures – Storied Mothers In this, our second* “Mother Figures” folio, we feature “Storied Mothers.” Once upon a time, traditional stories, myths, and fairy tales were dangerous places for mothers. Mothers were either sainted, but doomed, or evil incarnations, warped anti-mothers to escape from or to vanquish. Either way, they’re not often main characters, but accessories to their children. Either way, they often disappear, victim of a thesis that the mother must be eliminated for the child to self-actualize. Here, poets interrogate and reframe some old tales to center the mother and give her an alternative reading and voice. Carol Alexander…
Carol Alexander O Wicked Stepmother She wasn’t even mine, I had to borrow her. In her likeness, we wore cheap brass chains and scarlet mouths honied with plausible lies. That woman spent her days letting the garden rot the pumpkins cave in upon stalks, field mice grow thin. When the soil thwarted her, sending up heady stalks she hired men to pave the plot. From her bitterness we tasted ordinary sins, from her etiolated beauty life’s mockery. The queen appeared in every hand. After she shuffled the world stopped for a moment sucking in its cheeks—what insatiable greed what…