“Motherhood is about borrowing and adopting best practices and I look at the bravest writing mothers I know and try to walk in their steps.”

“Motherhood is about borrowing and adopting best practices and I look at the bravest writing mothers I know and try to walk in their steps.”

“Motherhood is about borrowing and adopting best practices and I look at the bravest writing mothers I know and try to walk in their steps.”

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, created by Deesha Philyaw. How has the experience of raising children shaped your own personal growth as a writer and as an individual? Being pregnant and having a very young child motivated me. I worked on a piece about the Black maternal health crisis while in my third trimester, and it was published in The Nation when my daughter was about six months old. That article became the basis of the first chapter of my book WE LIVE FOR THE WE, which was published in 2019 when she was nearly 3. It’s a book about parenting and it’s a memoir, so everything I was experiencing in my daughter’s early months and years felt like potential material for the book.  As she has gotten older, I’ve taken on additional caregiving responsibilities in my family. I’ve also moved more behind the scenes in publishing. I worked as a ghostwriter on a memoir. I’ve served as a developmental editor on some fantastic nonfiction projects, supporting authors who are writing on topics …

Mama’s Writing is Raising Mothers’ monthly interview series, curated by Starr Davis. What recent writing accomplishment(s) are you most proud of? Was this accomplishment shared and supported by your children? The most recent writing accomplishment I am most proud of right now is a piece I wrote that represents my unique voice and style as an afro-futurist author. It is an encouraging story of hope, love and purpose meant to inspire and engage human spiritual memory. I definitely had my children and young generations in mind as I created it. I personally believe that every soul has a vital role to play in helping all of us ascend higher as a collective society and each generation must be affirmed in knowing the power and purpose they possess in order to bring about better tomorrows. This story seeks to serve as a manifesto of prophecy and strength for those who read it. It also is the chrysalis behind my emerging writings that are currently in the making.  Tell about a time mom-guilt emerged (or emerges) in the …