I’m pleased to announce that an essay of mine is going to be published in From the Heart: A Collection of Stories and Poems from the Front Lines of Parenting, an anthology that’s just about to be published by a group called Write for Charity. Proceeds will benefit Children’s Hospital and St. Jude’s Children’s Research…
writing
Poetry and motherhood
Last month I attended an amazing session on the politics of writing motherhood at the Split this Rock Poetry Festival. Read more about it here in a piece I wrote for Mothering.com
Parenting anthology deadline 4/15
I thought I’d posted on this, but I must have just sent people emails about it. Write for Charity is seeking submissions for a parenting anthology that will benefit charity. Submissions are due Thursday, 4/15/10. I’m still working on mine! For details, check out http://writeforcharity.wordpress.com/ This page says: “You are welcome to submit any parenting…
New book! Knocked Up, Knocked Down
I was thrilled today to get an email blast from author Monica Murphy LeMoine that her book is now available on Amazon from Catalyst Book Press. Order your copy of Knocked Up, Knocked Down: Postcards of Miscarriage and Other Misadventures from the Brink of Parenthood today! Never one to hold back or bullshit, Monica is…
Clever title?
My freshman year in college, my Brit Lit I professor expected we would always have a “clever title.” I always used this as a space saver until I came up with one (except that on more than one occasion I noticed later that I’d spelled it “cleaver.” This was almost 18 years ago, the same…
Hot Momma finalist
I just learned that I was a Top 25 Finalist for the Hot Mommas Project whose mission is “to increase self-efficacy in women and girls by providing scalable, global, free access to role models online. “ My case is titled “Spreading the Word About Healthy Living” and can be found in the case library. The…
Reflecting on NIH VBAC conference
As I wrote shortly after attending the first day of the NIH conference on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) a few weeks ago, the experience was tiring. The panelists might have been trying to convey the message the uterine rupture is really rare — less than 1% — and that it does not deserve to…
"Getting there" with writing
I may have been a little sick, but at least I got a submission off to the Moving Words Poetry Competition. After having had a computer crash and loss of a lot of pieces about 6 months ago, I was pleased to find three (well, two that were written and one that got quickly re-written)…
Why family around can make Mama’s life easier
See my recent post, “Ill Take a Village. Please.” at DC Metro Moms Blog about missing the extra hands that helped entertain my son over the holidays. At least this week he was back to school and re-started a Spanish class, which gives me half day of help on Thursday and keeps me from entering…
Startting 2010 as a writer
A friend sent me this piece by Ann Patchett that is inspiring but daunting. Can I commit to a daily writing practice for 32 days, starting tomorrow. And if I do, will it stick? What if I can’t sleep at 2 a.m. and so getting up early to write means I’m going to be a…
Articles and artifacts
The contrast could not have been more stark. Scene One:I was standing in line at the post office sending an incredibly overdue care package to a friend who had a baby in the spring and an overdue package with a homemade pregnancy & postpartum journal to a friend who is due in just a month….
Where are reporters when you want them?
I just attended three (partial) days of an amazing conference where doctors from around the world were presenting fascinating information, including explaining how they came to question practices they’d had for years — even decades — before something caused them to question what they were doing. There were a few camera crews, and I’m told…
Book Review: Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood
Do you know and love a future – or new, or veteran – elementary school teacher? The perfect Back to School gift (or sugar-free Halloween treat) is Phillip Done’s Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood. Like his first book, the hilarious and tight 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny (which I…
Great play about WAHM
This past weekend, I got to see a (free!) reading of a new play by Karen Brody, author of Birth: The Play. At the Kennedy Center, as part of the Page to Stage program, actors read from evolving scripts, including Brody’s one-act “Michelle Obama: Taskmaster”. The play introduced us to Beth, a working-at-home mom of…
Away from home
It’s seriously happening. I’m spending the night away from my son. My first in 3.4 years. And all thanks to the internet. I posted a few months back on a moms email list looking for a place in the metro area where I could just go and work on the laptop all day long without…
To be not at BlogHer
I waited too long. By the time I decided that we’d be in an okay place with the move and that yes, I could justify the money to fly to Chicago for my first solo time since becoming a mom, BlogHer was sold out. I’d hoped that the conference would get me over the hump…
Back to writing (or at least thinking about it)
Back to the real world! I’ve been totally focused on moving for the past week (really months, but especially this week), and there’s been no small amount of frustration (see “Life without internet,” my post today at DC Metro Moms Blog). But I’m taking a break this afternoon to check out a writing workshop with…
Essay published in Exhale
The July issue of Exhale: A Literary Magazine for Intelligent People Who Have Lost a Baby, or Have Trouble Making Babies in the First Place includes a fabulous (and award-winning!) piece by my colleague and friend, Kim O’Connell. “A Feast for What Was Lost” is a must-read. My essay appears as this issue’s featured story….
Joining the profession
Once I got the piece published in the Post, I felt like I could call myself a serious enough writer to join what used to be Washington Independent Writers (now gone national to be “American” I.W.). Though I didn’t register in time to go to any agent pitch sessions (which frankly was a relief after…
Mother/Daughter stories
Arena Stage has posted my mother/daughter story and my friend Kim’s story on its blog, Stage Banter.