The wait is almost over
Literary Mama is back in 2025!
Next month, you’ll begin receiving new issues of Literary Mama once again. Thank you for sticking with us as we took most of 2024 to regroup and reorganize. After realizing our all-volunteer staff was stretched too thin, we could have folded. Thrown in the towel. Said 20 years of telling stories about motherhood was good enough.
But we didn’t, and reading through your submissions again has reminded us why: Stories about motherhood—in all its messiness and complexity and contradiction—are important, and they deserve to be shared.
We continue to accept submissions in all categories: Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, and Literary Reflections. Before pressing send, please review the submission guidelines (including department-specific instructions) and become familiar with previous issues. Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never submitted your work before! We welcome and encourage emerging writers.
While we’ve been preparing the next issue, LM senior editors have been sharing some of their favorites pieces from past issues. In our final installment, we’re featuring Libby Maxey, who started with LM in 2012 and currently serves as a Poetry editor.
Libby’s Favorites
Port of Call
By Kate Falvey
Poetry
“As a poetry editor at Literary Mama, I love it when I come across a poem that makes music for the reader. Port of Call is one of those—joyful, melancholy, soaring, and sweetly brief.”
Keeping A Writer’s House With The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
By Angela Berkley
Literary Reflections
“This is a sentimental favorite from my days in the Literary Reflections department. I loved Du Bose Heyward's Easter tale when I was growing up, but I also love Berkley's very grown-up reflection on parenthood, accomplishment, and identity.”
Life, Death, and Chickens: A Review of Brood
By Amanda Bird
Reviews
”I've picked up many books over the years because they were recommended by my Literary Mama colleagues; Jackie Polzin’s Brood included. Reviews Editorial Assistant Amanda Bird hooked me with her review, and it wasn't long before I was recommending it to others.”
Alpha Mom
By Kelly Fordon
Fiction
”This is the first piece I remember reading in Literary Mama. When a friend sent me a link to the journal more than 15 years ago, I had a one-year-old and was pregnant with my second. At that stage in my mothering life, reading ‘Alpha Mom,’ with its struggling and ambivalent new-mom narrator, made me want to read more.”
This Mama Is Lit!
Catch up on our latest podcast episodes, including interviews with K.T. Nguyen, Tovah Klein, and Nancy Reddy.
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