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Other People's Mothers
A nostalgic and poignant coming-of-age
story told through one young woman’s relationships with the mother figures in
her life
Relationships
between mothers and daughters can often be complicated and fraught. Even in the
best of circumstances, many of us may have grown up curious about the mothers
of our friends—looking to them, learning from them (for better or for worse), and
wondering what it would be like to be a part of their families.
Other
People’s Mothers
is a collection of interconnected, autobiographical essays that explore the
relationship between a daughter, her mother, and the other mothers present in
their lives. In this coming-of-age memoir, Julie Marie Wade traces a nexus of
female influences on her formative years in the ’80s and ’90s.
Through words and actions, the women around her communicate powerful and often
contradictory messages about class, religion, education, and morality, holding
enormous power over Wade’s journey toward adulthood.
In
expanding her exploration of motherhood and daughterhood to include these “other
mothers,” Wade takes a new and surprising kaleidoscopic approach to her
portrayals of family life. This book reveals a young woman in the late twentieth
century grappling with gendered expectations, beauty and body ideals, and
complex messages about who she is permitted—or destined—to become.
Julie Marie Wade is the author of many collections of poetry and prose, including The
Mary Years; Essays; and Just an Ordinary Woman
Breathing. Wade is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir
and grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.
She is professor of English and creative writing at Florida International
University.
story told through one young woman’s relationships with the mother figures in
her life
Relationships
between mothers and daughters can often be complicated and fraught. Even in the
best of circumstances, many of us may have grown up curious about the mothers
of our friends—looking to them, learning from them (for better or for worse), and
wondering what it would be like to be a part of their families.
Other
People’s Mothers
is a collection of interconnected, autobiographical essays that explore the
relationship between a daughter, her mother, and the other mothers present in
their lives. In this coming-of-age memoir, Julie Marie Wade traces a nexus of
female influences on her formative years in the ’80s and ’90s.
Through words and actions, the women around her communicate powerful and often
contradictory messages about class, religion, education, and morality, holding
enormous power over Wade’s journey toward adulthood.
In
expanding her exploration of motherhood and daughterhood to include these “other
mothers,” Wade takes a new and surprising kaleidoscopic approach to her
portrayals of family life. This book reveals a young woman in the late twentieth
century grappling with gendered expectations, beauty and body ideals, and
complex messages about who she is permitted—or destined—to become.
Julie Marie Wade is the author of many collections of poetry and prose, including The
Mary Years; Essays; and Just an Ordinary Woman
Breathing. Wade is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir
and grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.
She is professor of English and creative writing at Florida International
University.
182 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2025
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Julie Marie Wade
30 books30 followersBorn in Seattle in 1979, Julie Marie Wade completed a Master of Arts in English at Western Washington University in 2003, a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh in 2006, and a PhD in Humanities at the University of Louisville in 2012. She has received the Chicago Literary Award in Poetry (2004), the Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize (2004), the Oscar Wilde Poetry Prize (2005), the Literal Latte Nonfiction Award (2006), two Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes (2006, 2010), the AWP Intro Journals Award for Nonfiction (2009), the American Literary Review Nonfiction Prize (2010), the Arts & Letters Nonfiction Prize (2010), an Al Smith Artist Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council (2010), the Thomas J. Hruska Nonfiction Prize (2011), the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir (2011), the Bloom Nonfiction Chapbook Prize (2012), a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund (2012), and seven Pushcart Prize nominations. Julie is the author of two collections of lyric nonfiction, Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures (Colgate University Press, 2010) and Small Fires (Sarabande Books, 2011); two collections of poetry, Without (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and Postage Due (White Pine Press, 2013); the creative nonfiction chapbook Tremolo: An Essay (Bloom Press, 2013); and the forthcoming When I Was Straight: Poems (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2014). She lives with her partner Angie Griffin in the Sunshine State and teaches in the creative writing program at Florida International University in Miami.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 11, 2025
Five-star fabulous! These well-crafted stories are laugh-out-loud hilarious, told by a witty narrator who survived her youth, particularly her mother’s wrath, with the help of a few friends and their memorable mothers. Favorite mom: Mrs. Saunders, of course.
Favorite Passages:
“Since scars were a million times better than freckles or moles, serving as maps toward the treasure of a story, I reveled in the prospect of my future tattoo, a white, jagged line striking like lightning just below my cuticle. I laid awake nights as my finger itched itself whole, waiting for that grand blemish—marking both transgression and survival—to form.” (p. 121)
Favorite Passages:
“Since scars were a million times better than freckles or moles, serving as maps toward the treasure of a story, I reveled in the prospect of my future tattoo, a white, jagged line striking like lightning just below my cuticle. I laid awake nights as my finger itched itself whole, waiting for that grand blemish—marking both transgression and survival—to form.” (p. 121)
Displaying 1 of 1 review