The July/August 2023 Issue of Literary Mama
Read the latest issue and submit your writing
Literary Mama offers an encouraging reminder that our identities—as parents, as writers, as readers, as local or global contributors of whatever sort—aren’t predicated on incessant activity, or a checklist of accomplishments, or a certain definition of worthiness. Whatever this season is like for you, we hope you’ll find something heartening here to see you through to the next.
Libby Maxey, Senior Editor and Poetry Editor
Read the complete From the Editor letter
Creative Nonfiction
Drowning in the Fog
By Laura Spencer
No Man’s Land
By Marin Smith
A Time to Build
By Elena Garfield
Fiction
Opting for Illusions
By Carrie Esposito
Symptoms
By Shayla Frandsen
Poetry
You thought you’d show them
By Ella Kurz
Selkie Mother
By Meg Yardley
Single Moms Have No Time for Birdwatching: Ask Me How I Know
By Laurie Klein
Rivers of Mitochondria
By Yeva Johnson
Statistics
By Marisa Glover
Four Weeks
By Ariel Kaplowitz Hahn
Without Reservation
By Barbara Rockman
Arrivals Gate
By Vanessa Stirling
Wildflower
By Jen Fitzgerald
Profiles
Angels of Instagram: A Conversation with Sara Petersen
By Brianna Avenia-Tapper
Collector of Details: A Conversation with Audrey Burges
By Jill Witty
Expect the Miracle: A Conversation with Alle C. Hall
By Tess Clarkson
It’s Not Selfish, It’s Self-full: A Conversation with Estelle Erasmus
By Holly Rizzuto Palker
Race and the American Dream: A Conversation with Vibhuti Jain
By Jessica Kunkler
Trust That You Are Always Writing: A Conversation with Poet and Muse Tania Pryputniewicz
By Rebecca Jane
Reviews
Motherhood as Black, Queer World-Building: A Review of Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Black Motherhood and Black Resistance
By Dara Mathis
Motherhood Unshorn: A Review of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility
By Ellen Elder
The Roots of Mama Rage: A Review of Writing Maternity: Medicine, Anxiety, Rhetoric, and Genre
By Amanda Fields
Check Out Our Blog
Be inspired by our fresh batch of writing prompts then find a new place to submit your writing in our Calls for Submissions.
Need more inspiration? Read about how travel inspires blog editor Carrie Vittitoe’s writing. Then be sure to visit our blog each week for great content, like our recent look back on the Columns department as we celebrate the past 20 years of Literary Mama.
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Literary Mama is an all-volunteer non-profit organization and we have been around for 20 years because of readers like you who subscribe to the newsletter, submit their writing, buy books from our Bookshop.org store, and make tax deductible gifts of any size. Your support makes this publication possible!