Writer Mother Monster

On June 19, 1865, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with news of freedom. More than 250,000 African Americans embraced freedom by executive decree in what became known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day. With the principles of self-determination, citizenship, and democracy magnifying their hopes and dreams, those Texans held fast to the promise of true liberty for all.

On Juneteenth, may we celebrate the essence of freedom that galvanized the country, the progress we have made in our Nation, and all that is possible when we march forward together.

Learn more: https://nmaahc.si.edu/juneteenth

How about that time GillianAnderson wore a dress embroidered with vulvas designed by Gabriella Hearst to the !? Can we say ICON?

**na

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to receive a parent-writer fellowship to attend the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing summer conference. Now, I'm lucky enough to serve as a judge to help other parent-writers attend this fabulous program. The faculty is outstanding, the location is unparalleled in its beauty, and the other writers are as kind and generous as they are devoted to their craft. I hope you apply to attend MVICW (whether you're a parent or not).

WE'RE BACK, BABY!

Writer Mother Monster is back with a brand-new season, kicking off this Saturday with an IN-PERSON show at CT Lit Fest. The Festival is all day Saturday at Hartford's Real Art Ways. Learn more at www.realartways.org/raw-events/ct-lit-fest/

Join host Lara Ehrlich, author of Animal Wife (Red Hen Press, 2020) and director of Thought Fox Writers Den, in conversation with Janet Garcia-Hallett, Ph.D., author of Invisible Mothers: Unseen Yet Hypervisible after Incarceration (, 2022), and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences.

Learn more about Writer Mother Monster at www.writermothermonster.com

Don't miss this Thought Fox class with WMM guest Kao Kalia Yang! You'll remember Kalia from the special episode, "Writing Motherhood and Miscarriage," in which she and Shannon Gibney discussed why it’s necessary to give voice to this common pain and shared their own heart-wrenching stories.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UAounCkA_o and enroll in Kalia's class below!

LAST CHANCE TO ENROLL!

Join the soulful, talented, inimitable Kao Kalia Yang for tonight's class, "Meeting Your Fears on the Page." We'll write and discuss how our craft can address the horrors of our individual and communal experiences. Together, we’ll anchor our fears in language that will allow us to interact, shape, and journey with them on the page. (The Velvet Mill)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meeting-your-fears-on-the-page-tickets-565748427777?aff=oddtdtcreator

On the first day of --and every day--Writer Mother Monster stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. We all deserve true inclusion and have a personal responsibility in creating an inclusive community.

Last year, we hosted this special episode on Writing, Mothering & Gender Identity with Stephenie Burt, Jennifer Chen, and Toni McLellan. We talked about writing and mothering nonbinary and trans children, and writing and mothering as trans and nonbinary mothers, even as LGBTQ+ rights are being attacked throughout the US, from child welfare investigations targeting families of transgender children in Texas to the Florida Senate passing the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill to a bill that sought to repeal New Hampshire’s ban on “conversion therapy” for minors. It's infuriating that we are still dealing with these issues a year later.

https://writermothermonster.com/2022/04/01/special-episode-writing-motherhood-gender-identity/

Please join WMM as an ally and advocate. As Cornel West famously said, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

Today, we're celebrating former WMM guest Samantha Silva, who published this incredible piece, "My Spectacular Betrayal," about falling in love with a family friend and risking everything to come into her own. Thank you, Sam, for sharing your painful, beautiful, necessary truth.

“I sometimes felt a sense of expansive possibility, the exquisite beauty of being human. Frightened as I was, turning back would feel like cowardice — that I wasn’t brave enough to reimagine my own big life.”

Read it here now:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/style/modern-love-affair-therapy-spectacular-betrayal.html

Then watch/listen to Sam's WMM episode here:
https://writermothermonster.com/2023/02/22/samantha-silva/

Just found this pic from 6 years ago. So happy! SO TIRED! If this isn't motherhood... I don't know what is.

To all the writer-moms out there: Whether you're actively writing, taking a break while your kids are tiny, dreaming up a story, or launching a book, you are doing GREAT! Today, and every day, embrace and enjoy your monsterhood!

Congratulations, Crystal Maldonado! ❤️

it may be spring out there but it's always autumn in my heart

(featuring THE FALL OF WHIT RIVERA pass pages + one of Whit's favorite pens, the Pilot G2 bold point duh)

THIS SUNDAY: Take two hours for yourself and write with Writer Mother Monster and friends!

Struggling to write? Drowning in a sea of small voices? You are not alone. The more we feel we should be doing, the more inadequate we feel because we can’t possibly do it all. Together, we’ll abandon that myth and share strategies for prioritizing our craft, explore examples set by other fierce writer moms, undertake generative writing exercises, and share our prose (not required). You will leave this workshop energized and armed with a plan for recommitting to your creative work. In partnership with Writer Mother Monster.

Enroll now!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/workshop-prioritizing-your-craft-for-writer-moms-tickets-541821672207

Writer Mother Monster WMM is a series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity

HAPPY LAUNCH DAY to our WMM friend and former guest .hagood.3!

Her book FILTHY CREATION asks what it means to be a girl maker. How do girls fit into the false dichotomy between brilliant, monstrous men artists and supposedly domesticated women ones? And how can a young artist even figure out her own identity amid all this noise?

Order the book Kirkus Reviews calls “Compelling and absorbing" today and watch/listen to Caroline's episode of WMM here!

Caroline Hagood (January 10, 2023) Caroline Hagood is an Assistant Professor of Literature, Writing and Publishing and Director of Undergraduate Writing at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. She is the author of the…

On International Transgender Day of Visibility--and every day--Writer Mother Monster stands in solidarity with transgender people of all ages and those working to ensure widespread, safe access lifesaving gender-affirming medical care. Transgender people of any age deserve true inclusion and safe access to medical care and urgently need our support to ensure it. We all have a personal responsibility in creating a trans-inclusive community. (Thank you to ywcaofcleveland.org for the language with which to express this vital message.)

Last year, we hosted this special episode on Writing, Mothering & Gender Identity with () Stephenie Burt, Jennifer Chen, and Toni McLellan. We talked about writing and mothering nonbinary and trans children, and writing and mothering as trans and nonbinary mothers.

It’s no accident that we held this conversation on International Transgender Day of Visibility, even as LGBTQ+ rights are being attacked throughout the US, from child welfare investigations targeting families of transgender children in Texas to the Florida Senate passing the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill to a bill that sought to repeal New Hampshire’s ban on “conversion therapy” for minors. It's infuriating that we are still dealing with these issues a year later.

https://writermothermonster.com/2022/04/01/special-episode-writing-motherhood-gender-identity/

So many amazing things are happening with Writer Mother Monster, and one of them is our upcoming special episode over postpartum psychosis! This will be a panel conversation between writer mothers to illuminate and complicate the issue of postpartum psychosis and depression. We have multiple incredible panelists joining us for this special episode. Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a psychiatrist and author of White Dancing Elephants, who has treated postpartum patients in-hospital, including at a forensic psych ward for women awaiting trial for harming their children. Sharline Chiang is a writer, editor, book coach, publicist, and journalist who wrote, among many other articles, Don’t Call It Baby Blues HYPHEN, the only existing online magazine article on Asian American survivors of postpartum depression. Kathryn Gahl is the author of The Yellow Toothbrush, a look at anxiety, depression, OCD, and paranoid thinking through the eyes of a mother whose daughter is experiencing a jail sentence after committing filicide. We are so excited to hear from these wonderful writer mother monsters, and we can’t wait to see what you all have to say. Join the conversation tomorrow evening at 6 PM (ET)!

Tonight at 6 PM (ET), Writer Mother Monster has the absolute pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth Nunez! Elizabeth Nunez emigrated from Trinidad to the US at age 19. Winner of an American Book Award, an Independent Publishers Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Hurston Wright Legacy Award, she is the author of a memoir,Not for Everyday Use, and ten novels, including Now Lila Knows; Even in Paradise; Boundaries; Anna In-Between; Prospero's Daughter; Grace; Discretion; Bruised Hibiscus; Beyond the Limbo Silence and When Rocks Dance. Four of her novels were selected as New York Times Editors Choice. She is the co-founder with John Oliver Killens of the National Black Writers Conference and executive producer of the series Black Writers in America. She has served on the jury for national and international literary prizes/awards, and was twice a fellow at the Yaddo and McDowell Artists colonies. Nunez received a PhD in English Literature from New York University, and is a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, CUNY. We can't wait to see you all there live!

Welcome back from everyone! If you’re experiencing post-conference blues, we have the solution for you! Writer Mother Monster is pleased to have Elizabeth Nunez as our special guest tomorrow evening! Elizabeth Nunez is an award-winning author of a memoir and ten novels. She is also a cofounder of the National Black Writers Conference and executive producer of the CUNY-TV series Black Writers in America. If that weren’t enough, she is also a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, where she teaches courses on fiction writing and Caribbean women writers. We are so excited to talk with Elizabeth tomorrow, and we hope you’ll join us at 6 PM (ET)!

Tuesday! Bookmark the YouTube page. Link in bio and below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzXPl2aNTJw

Caitlin Sacks designed our logo too! Follow Thought Fox for more fab art from a master designer!

Tomorrow we’ll unveil the official Thought Fox logo, designed by the outstanding Caitlin Sacks. Follow so you don’t miss the big reveal!

FLASH SALE! 10% off your order at the WMM shop until tomorrow (Feb 27) at 5 PM EST. Use this discount code at check out for 10% off WMM mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, tumblers, un**es, and more! All proceeds support the show. M2QXN46M9V0N

https://writermothermonster.myshopify.com/

Writer Mother Monsters, it's almost time! We are thrilled to get to speak with author/playwright/screenwriter and fellow Writer Mother Monster Samantha Silva in just a short hour. Join us live as we stream this discussion and let us know what kinds of questions and comments you all have for Lara and Samantha. We can't wait to see you there!

This week, Writer Mother Monster is thrilled to chat with screenwriter and author Samantha Silva! Samantha Silva is an author, playwright, and screenwriter based in Idaho. She’s sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, and New Line Cinema. Mr. Dickens and His Carol, her debut novel, was published by Flatiron Books (2017), followed by Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft (Flatiron Books/2021). Samantha wrote and directed her award-winning short script, THE BIG BURN, which premiered at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2017. Her work appears in One Story and LitHub.com. Commissioned by Seattle Repertory Theater, she adapted her first novel for the stage; Mr. Dickens and His Carol had its world premiere there in 2022. Samantha describes writer-motherhood in three words as: NECESSITY OF INVENTION. Join us tomorrow at 6 PM (ET) live, and share your thoughts, questions, and comments! Our host will weave them into the discussion. See you then!