All posts filed under: Columns

Regina Jamison | 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 of? Was this accomplishment shared and supported by your children? I’m grateful when any of my work gets published whether it’s a novel, short story, essay, or a poem and my children are always my best cheerleaders which is fantastic. My novel, Choosing Grace, was a long process from birth to being out in the world and I’m proud of my determination to stick with it, but I’m also proud when I find homes for my poetry too. Tell about a time mom-guilt emerged (or emerges) in the midst of your writing process. I’m not sure if I have ever experienced “mom guilt”. When my kids were younger I wrote the first draft of my novel at night while they slept, but I got it done because my goal was simple – write one page a day. That mindset helped me a lot. It relieved the pressure in terms of production – one page is definitely …

Ten Questions for Malaka Gharib

By Sherisa de Groot

RAISING MOTHERS: What inspired you to tell this story? MALAKA GHARIB: I wanted to know: how did spending my childhood summers with my dad’s family in Egypt shape my worldview and personality? I grew up going to Cairo every year from my home in Los Angeles from the age of 9 to 23. I spent a couple of years exploring that question and I came away with new understandings that surprised me. I learned that my father did the best he could to include me in his new chapter of life in another country. And that I learned a lot about relationships – that it takes love but also effort. Writing a book is like free therapy. RAISING MOTHERS: What did you edit out of this book? MALAKA GHARIB: You can’t include every detail of your life in a book, otherwise that wouldn’t be a story – it would just be a diary! The specific anecdotes I chose to tell, for example, the first time I smoked …

Christina Santi | Mama’s Writing

By Starr Davis

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? I have a personal essay titled “Humming for a Hero” in the upcoming inaugural issue of Gladiolus Magazine. My son is only five years old, but he is the center of the essay, and it covers our music listening sessions, which are a source of joy that powers my ability to mother, work and write amid living with major depression and anxiety disorder. Tell about a time mom-guilt emerged (or emerges) in the midst of your writing process. Mom guilt encapsulates my existence– it’s 76% of my therapy sessions. My writing process is non-linear and never has been. I jot down ideas and piece together bits of my life weeks, months, and even years out. I feel the guilt most when I am in one of my rabbit holes and reading pages on pages of references that may amount to one sentence in a piece. I …

Ten Questions for LaToya Jordan

By Sherisa de Groot

RAISING MOTHERS: What inspired you to tell this story? LATOYA JORDAN: The idea began formulating in my head in 2016, after I read a news article about the first uterine transplant being performed in the US. Because my mind always goes to the worst-case scenario, I thought about the urban myth surrounding black market organs and waking up in a hotel bathtub filled with ice and a kidney missing. I thought about the lengths some people will go to to have biological children and wondered about what a future black market for uteruses might look like. Later that year, I had uterine surgery to remove a fibroid. I’d had many talks with my doctors about my uterus, surgery, and preserving my fertility. Then, the first Woman’s March happened in January 2017. What began as a kernel of an idea morphed based on what was happening in my life and what was happening in the country around medical advances, reproductive rights, and racial justice. RAISING MOTHERS: What did you edit out …

ORDINARY LOVE

By Namrata Poddar

As new parents, Dia and Neel had often heard from older couples in their families that the early years of marriage are rosy rosy rosy. True colors of a couple come out once they have a child. That’s when you have to adjust adjust adjust. This last line, aunties recycled more often, eyeing Dia. Adjust, she told herself while locking the seatbelts around their one-year-old daughter, Taarini, in her child seat. Neel’s dad’s cousin brother was hosting the Diwali party for all of her extended families-in-law, the Samskaras, at his house in Mission Viejo. Dia and Neel hadn’t recovered from their fight over their vacation plans for Hawai’i but it was their first Diwali outing with Taarini so they decided to play social that evening. While driving, Neel turned on the sports channel. He knew how much Dia disliked the male anchor’s whiny voice alternating between a commentary on sports and politics with predictable quips on women celebrities. While driving in their pre-baby days, they’d mostly talk about their day at work, their latest with …