I remember the time I first encountered Literary Mama in the web... I had recently given birth for the second time and just discovered blogs (several of which I started reading because they were linked to in LM the site). When I saw the site I breathed a deep sigh of relief… My pregnancy had been a lonely time for me, a graduate student working on my dissertation proposal and caring for a toddler, all while being a teaching assistant at the university and I longed to read about other mothers, particularly mothers who were interested in literature like I was. Amy Hudock’s Mothering in the Ivory Tower columns and her blog fascinated me. The mere idea of such a group of “literary mothers” made me joyful!Of course I jumped at the chance of participating in the Literary Mama Anthology blog tour. I wanted the book very badly, because I had not read most of the pieces in the web. Even though I enjoy reading blogs, and using the internet for email and a research tool, I still prefer real books for literary pieces. Now, however, after finishing the book I want to go back and read as much as I can from the site!
I have to thank Andi profusely for getting me on board so late, this book was a precious gift that I have enjoyed immensely. When I read the introduction online I was convinced that if I had to start over my dissertation I’d write about literature and motherhood, I’m sure I’d be most passionate about this subject.
Since mine is probably one of the very last reviews and by now most people have already read many, many ones… I want to leave you with something different: a quickly written (no, it took quite a while, particularly for the links) “review poem,” partly inspired by one of the most amazing pieces of the book (for me), the “concrete” poem “Pregnancy” by Lori Romero, which actually opens the book and looks more beautiful in actual print than digital print.
Note: (I don't think the text will look like I want it to look like, I'll try, but I don't know if it'll work. Edited to add: It doesn't really work, and I'm kind of sad, since it took me a while to type it the way I wanted it... oh well... It originaly wasn't meant to aligned in the center either, but it looks a bit better that way. Some of the lists of words were meant to look like shapes, square, diamond, circle, "stairs". Does anyone know how I could try to keep the formatting I want? I started to play with colors and sizes, to try to make it better)
just like their children:
above all they are mamas
creative mamas
broken mamas
prospective mamas
poet mamas
adoptive mamas
all of them children themselves
trying to come to terms with their
childhood, their parents, grandparents
storms
cancer
blueberries
Alzheimer
ashes
mothers
falling
awakening
unraveling
grieving
struggling
seeking
mothers writing
to heal
to survive
to live
Lilian, this is sooo COOL!!! What a truly creative idea! This is really something quite different and I love it! (Also the fact that each word links up to a particular piece of Literary Mama).
ReplyDeleteyes, Lilian, it's great! I don't know what you had planned for it,but the colors and the links are terrific.
ReplyDeleteTry printing it, scanning it as a .jpg, then uploading it as an image. If you can manipulate it all electronically, you might even be able to forego the scanning.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion Articulate Dad! I had actually thought of doing that and maybe I still will, thing is -- the main point of the poem is the links to the essays in the book/ LM site and that would be lost with the image.
ReplyDeleteOf course I can post the image so people will know what I had in mind initially for the formatting.
Your hard work paid off. I see the womanly outline of the poem and appreciate all the work that went into posting so many links!
ReplyDeleteWonderful poem. And I, too, love the Literary Mamas!
ReplyDelete