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Celebrating & Centering Black, Indigenous and Brown parenthood since 2015

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Behind the Book with Cherise Fisher

by Sherisa de Groot

Behind the Book is an exploration into the other side of publishing; we speak with agents, editors, publicists, and other members of the publishing industry whose hard work contributes to the wonderful material we are able to read and recommend daily. It’s an open conversation on their individual careers, the state of the industry and its future potential. Our first installment is with Cherise Fisher, literary agent at Wendy Sherman. Her career spans over 25 years, including her time as Editor-in-Chief of Plume (an imprint of Penguin Random House). She has ushered into print such recent notable books as Rachel Rickett’s international bestseller Do Better (2021), Tia Williams’ novel Seven Days In June (2021), Maya-Camille Broussard’s Justice of the Pies (2022), Diane Marie Brown’s novel Black Candle Woman (2023) and a host of other spectacular authors. What was your first job in publishing? My first job in publishing was as the Assistant to the Editor of Chief of Delacorte/Dell. I started about two weeks after my graduation from college. Can you walk us through your...

July 18, 2023
A Closer Book, Behind the Book

Mama's Writing, curated by Starr Davis

September 12, 2023

Christina Santi | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Starr Davis
August 8, 2023

Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Sherisa de Groot
July 11, 2023

Keisha-Gaye Anderson | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Starr Davis
June 13, 2023

Dr. Clarice O. Thomas | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Starr Davis
May 11, 2023

Sayuri Ayers | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Starr Davis
April 18, 2023

Deesha Philyaw | Mama’s Writing

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud...

by Starr Davis

Writers on Writers

Claire Jiménez on the Interiority of Puerto Rican Motherhood. In Conversation with Amaris Castillo.

by Amaris Castillo

In Claire Jiménez’s debut novel, What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, we meet a Puerto Rican family from Staten Island. It’s 2008 and Dolores Ramirez and her daughters, Nina and Jessica, have been living with a gaping hole for more than a decade. Ever since Ruthy – Dolores’ headstrong middle child – disappeared after school at just 13 years old. Then one day, Jessica notices a woman on a reality TV show who looks just like her long-lost sister. Could it be the real Ruthy? As I read this novel, I was struck by the deep care the Puerto Rican author took in building the alternating voices of the Ramirez women. They are unflinchingly honest, funny, and loyal. The matriarch Dolores, in particular, stayed with me. She is a mother who exercises tough love on her daughters, but also questions many of the decisions she’s made as a parent. A mother who, in all of her chapters, speaks directly to her Lord. And she’s a mother crippled by guilt over her missing daughter, yet has...

August 11, 2023
Writers on Writers

Ten Questions

September 6, 2023

Ten Questions for LaToya Jordan

RAISING MOTHERS:     What inspired you to tell this story? LATOYA JORDAN:    The idea began formulating in...

by Sherisa de Groot
August 2, 2023

Ten Questions for Grace Talusan

RAISING MOTHERS:     What inspired you to tell this story? GRACE TALUSAN:     I wrote this book...

by Sherisa de Groot
July 5, 2023

Gone Like Yesterday | Ten Questions for Janelle Williams

RAISING MOTHERS:     What inspired you to tell this story?  JANELLE WILLIAMS:     I was largely inspired...

by Sherisa de Groot
June 7, 2023

Ten Questions for Cinelle Barnes

RAISING MOTHERS:     What inspired you to tell this story? CINELLE BARNES:     My debut memoir came about...

by Sherisa de Groot

Essays

The Broken Crystal Ball and The Zombie Killer

by Ryane Nicole Granados

As a single woman, I walked through city streets, shopped at local stores, and strolled through Target, my eyes fixed on the red bullseye flyer advertising this week’s specials.  The piercing wail of an unruly child then abruptly interrupted my stroll down memory lane.  The crystal ball in my head once told me that when I have children, they will never behave this way.  Later that day, I sighed loudly at a parent who thought it was acceptable to bring their whiny kid to a movie and allow it to cry during the best part of the afternoon matinee.  A rubbing of the crystal ball, and I saw me and my immensely supportive husband guarding our child against any R-rated movies, home on a Friday night, enjoying family-friendly carpet picnics and Disney-inspired fun. But was my crystal ball broken all along? Now I am in Target with my three-year-old throwing a Titanic-sized tantrum. Who is this kid that is taking me to task with all 39 inches of his miniature frame? Where is the...

February 1, 2022
Across the Spectrum, Current Issue, Essays Archive

"Time is how you spend your love."

Zadie Smith

More Essays

June 24, 2022

Learning (to be) Korean

My first and worst moment as a parent occurred on the same day. My husband and I waited two...

by Cynthia Landesberg
June 16, 2022

Given Name, Taken Name

There is a popular (albeit misguided) belief that BIPOC kids adopted into white families live white-approximate lives and grow...

by Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka
June 16, 2022

Birthmark

Around age 10, I got a bad sunburn on my face. My adoptive mother didn’t really take sunscreen seriously....

by Chixue Yue
May 3, 2022

“This wasn’t a Black woman thing.”: An Excerpt from Adiba Nelson’...

“Everyone had always told me I was going to be such a good mother, and I had always seen...

by Adiba Nelson

Columns

Fashioned to Survive

by Starr Davis

When a Black woman gets her hair done, it is both ritual and risk. It will require you to sit in a salon chair for hours, or under a dryer. It requires you to be temporarily forgotten with a wet head in a sink, in a chair, in the kitchen. The stylist I trust the most should be dangerous. Her hands, like my mother’s....

July 18, 2022
The Political Body
Pregnant woman standing outside against a sunset.

Three Poems

by Daisy Muñoz

Immaculate Conception The day my mother confessed  She had conceived me though IUI, Guilt swallowed her eyes.  Her voice grew quiet And shame took over her body. She had betrayed God  For a baby. Wanted something  So natural,  Motherhood, And obtained it artificially.  Throughout my life,  She repeatedly told me I was special.  I never quite understood why  Until that day.    Feliz día...

March 14, 2022
Poetry Archive, The Political Body
A Black man holds his head in his hand. He is leaning against the foot of a bed. A person rests their hand on his shoulder.

I Had to Dial 9-1-1 on My Son During His Mental Health Crisis

by Carla M. Cherry

“Hello, 9-1-1. What is your emergency?”  The operator’s business-like monotone was exactly what I needed so I could focus.  “I need an ambulance,” I gasped into my cell phone. “My son has symptoms of manic depression. He’s not violent, but I need to get him emergency psychiatric care.”  After I gave the operator the address, I ran the rest of the way to my...

February 10, 2022
Across the Spectrum, The Political Body
A smiling woman floating in water.

Notes on the Ancestral, Collective & Personal Body

by Fae Wolfe

I feel, therefore I can be free – Audre Lorde   personal & collective body I have come to learn that my body is not just my body—it’s an accumulation of freshly scarred histories embellishing the surface of my skin. My body is flesh, soul and history, a combination of intergenerational teachings passed down through lifetimes. My body is woven by threads of ancestors...

January 6, 2022
Columns Archive, The Political Body

poetry

June 28, 2022

Conceiving Basil

You are going through a workbook. Used to these. The finitude of a heavy hand and your mother’s equivalent...

by Andie Sheridan
June 28, 2022

The Naming

I don’t remember what they look like, the boys who surround the row where I sit alone on the...

by Sullivan Summer
June 28, 2022

Three Poems | Heather Hauck

Upon Meeting My Mother In my mind we sit across from each other in a crowded restaurant. The curve...

by Heather Hauck
February 1, 2022

De luto y sin dopamina

When I’m knee deep in laundry and memories, no one bothers with my title: Chief Executive Home Officer. I...

by Li Yun Alvarado
February 1, 2022

depressions of symptom

If I ever become an acclaimed writer, I’d worry about the interviews because I don’t know many words. I...

by Camille Posey
April 21, 2021

Some Mothers II

Some Some mothers Some mothers spend Some mothers spend every Some mothers spend every moment Some mothers spend every...

by Anna Limontas-Salisbury
October 27, 2020

In the Land of Milk and Honey We Are Lactose Intolerant and the Bees Are Dying

I hold these truths to be self evident   that this country is full of shit. It sucks the...

by Janel Cloyd
September 18, 2020

Lullabies for Black Boys

Tanka Lullabies for black boys  we try to make sense of why they kill our children seems black means...

by JP Howard

Comics

Never has this Momma ever . . . LET MY CHILD ENJOY ENDLESS HOURS OF SCREENTIME.

By Lisa Lim

 

August 28, 2023
Comics, Never Has This Momma Ever

Never has this Momma ever. . . FELT LIKE I WAS BURNING THE CANDLE ON BOTH ENDS.

By Lisa Lim

   

July 24, 2023
Comics, Never Has This Momma Ever

Never Has This Momma Ever…

By Lisa Lim

NEVER HAS THIS MOMMA EVER. . . bought a million cute crop tops not remembering I have a post-baby belly.   NEVER HAS THIS MOMMA EVER. . . been...

May 22, 2023
Comics, Never Has This Momma Ever

Me vs Them vs Us vs Me

By Maritza Ruiz-Kim

I thought when my first baby left my body and I looked him in the eyes, I’d feel this overwhelming oneness with him—this baby made out of ingredients of...

February 1, 2022
Across the Spectrum, Comics

Celebrating & Centering Black, Indigenous and Brown parenthood since 2015

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