I read a lot of anthologies, and I'm just embarking on the hard task of editing one, so I understand how varied the quality of them can be. Sometimes I pick one up, and I'm immediately struck by the unevenness of the submissions--the diamonds in the rough sparkling, but too much rough to make the diamonds worth the searching. Sometimes, I am immediately drawn in, struck by the originality and veracity of the words. A good personal essay is one of my favorite things on the planet Earth.
The latter was absolutely the case with The Maternal is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change, a new anthology by Shari MacDonald Strong. As the title suggests, it features a range of essays by women contemplating the ways in which their mothering is part and parcel of their activism, how changing diapers is not opposed to developing a political conscience, and is in fact, intertwined with it.
Although there are some big names (Nancy Pelosi, Benazir Bhutto etc.) on the cover, with the exception of Barbara Kingsolver's awesome essay, all the best were by those that are not household names (or at least not outside of the mother's movement). They explore work/life balance, welfare, adoption, caregiving conflicts, relationships between mothers and nannies, race, love, and ten million other interesting threads.
Read the Q&A I did with the editor for Alternet here. And congrats to all the moms who wield both pen and so fiercely.
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Thanks for the Q & A. I am planning to go out and get this. Don't let the lack of comments be interpreted that mom issues aren't interesting!
It's really disappointing that Feministing regularly promotes Seal Press publications, without even a nod to widespread and well-documented recent history that Seal Press editors have made with their selection of racist book covers and illustrations, as well as racist interactions on blogs maintained by women of color.