Writer Mother Monster

06/09/2024

Dear friends,

We're planning a special episode on writing, motherhood, and money. Who should we invite into this conversation?

21/08/2024

Claire Oshetsky is the author of the novels POOR DEER (January 2024) and CHOUETTE (November 2021), which was longlisted for the 2022 Pen/Faulkner award for fiction and won the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Claire's short fiction has been featured in Alaska Quarterly, Hayden's Ferry, North American Review, and many others. A former science journalist, Claire has written for Wired, Technology Review, The New York Times, and other periodicals. Claire is four-time recipient of the "Article of the Year" award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Claire also wrote THE BOOK OF DOG BY LARK BENOBI, an apocalyptic romp that was named one of the ten best eco-fiction books of 2018 by Brit & Co. Claire lives with their family in Santa Cruz, California.

Writer Mother Monster is a conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice as we make space for creative endeavors. Each episode is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, then archived as a video, audio podcast, and transcript on writermothermonster.com.

11/08/2024

Writer Mother Monster is a community and conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. This episode is filmed live at the Stonington Free Library.

Our guest Mary Collins is the author of articles, essays, and three books, including her most recent, A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens. She is a professor of nonfiction for the Creative Writing Minors at Central Connecticut State University.

19/06/2024

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

23/02/2024

Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, the Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Chicago Review of Books. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, Longreads, Guernica, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Theatre, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor at Northwestern University Press.

Writer Mother Monster is a community and conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. Each episode is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, then archived on writermothermonster.com

09/01/2024

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

**na

08/01/2024

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).

22/11/2023

11/10/2023

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

30/06/2023

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

02/06/2023

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.”

30/05/2023