Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood

by Katrina Kenison (Editor), Kathleen Hirsch (Editor)

This remarkable collection of twenty stories about motherhood by writers who are mothers evokes every stage of the journey, from pregnancy and birth through the childhood years, adolescence, and adulthood. Together they depict the complexity of mothering in America today as woman are actually experience it.

The works gathered here constitute a step toward a new mothers literature that puts to rest the long-held myth that has separated motherhood from a woman's creativity. In these pages women from all walks of life, single, married, divorced or just out of their teens and well into their eighties, rich and poor, black and white, grapple with the realities of motherhood – sacrifice and boundless joy, self-doubt and miracles of the every day. Whether you are a new mother, a seasoned mother, or a grandmother many times over you will find yourself in this book.

Contributors: Mary Grimm, Laurie Colwin, Perri Klass, Kate Braverman, Molly Giles, Mary Gordon, Ronnie Sandroff, Roxana Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Marian Thurm, Paula K. Gover, Marsha Lee Berkman, Melissa Pritchard, Jane Shapiro, Julia Whitty, Alice Elliott Dark, J. California Cooper, Sue Miller, Eileen Fitzgerald.

Genres: Parenting, Short Stories, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

"I write to remind myself of how I want to live and who I want to be," says KATRINA KENISON, author of three beloved memoirs that, together, chart the seasons of a woman's life.
Her first book, MITTEN STRINGS FOR GOD: REFLECTIONS FOR MOTHERS IN A HURRY, now a classic for parents of young children, is a compelling invitation to do less and enjoy life more -- in a culture that urges "bigger, better, faster."
THE GIFT OF AN ORDINARY DAY: A MOTHER'S MEMOIR celebrates the small pleasures and the small moments of family life, (which of course are not really small at all).
MAGICAL JOURNEY:AN APPRENTICESHIP IN CONTENTMENT, an intimate memoir of loss and change, growth and transformation. speaks to any woman who has ever mourned the passage of time, doubted her sense of purpose, or asked the question, "What now?"
Her new book, MOMENTS OF SEEING:REFLECTIONS FROM AN ORDINARY LIFE, gives voice to the private longings and simple joys of women everywhere. Drawn from her popular blog, this long-awaited collection is a welcome reminder to pay attention, to practice gratitude, to keep an eye out for wonder. So it is that we begin to discover the sacred in the everyday. .
The annual editor of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES from 1990-2006, she co-edited, with John Updike, THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY, a New York Times bestseller. Her other books include the anthology MOTHERS:TWENTY STORIES OF CONTEMPORARY MOTHERHOOD, and MEDITATIONS FROM THE MAT: REFLECTIONS FROM THE PATH OF YOGA, written with her yoga teacher Rolf Gates.
Katrina Kenison lives with her family in rural New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

On a week when Oprah is going to have to seriously reconsider her endorsement and selection of American Dirt based on mounting criticism of appropriation, I think it makes sense to describe how I just stumbled on a literary blackface performance from the 1990s.

Never before in my reading history (or not in my charted Goodreads history) has a book gone for a solid top-tier to the bottom of the heap so profoundly quickly. This was a singular reading experience: one of the sit-up-in-bed, turn-on-the-phone, and gasp-scream-in-horror-dive into the less than one-star territory.

Let me set the scene. I was enjoying this collection short stories. Not true. I was savoring these unflinching portraits of motherhood. I understood these women in a way I could not have imagined two year ago. Yes, even the crack head who killed her baby, because not all mothers want to be mothers. That is an ugly, but true, fact.

For the first 290 pages my main criticism was the stories were dated and mainly white and affluent mothers. Side note: I chose this volume from a second-hand store because the name Barbara Kingsolver was included. I'm white! All the stories had been published before the collection was published in 1996.

There are single mothers, divorced mothers, career mothers, stay-at-home mothers, bad mothers (see crack head), and a united front of struggling mothers who see beauty in the small, fleeting moments. There are devastating death stories, which I identify with since my brother passed away unexpectedly in 1998. Yet the authors are all white. It's pretty obvious.

Even the introduction, which poses as a light literary analysis of the stories within, is from the two white women curators (I see you Katrina Kenison) with obviously affluent backgrounds.

So can you see where I am going with this? On page 290, when I started reading the first few paragraph's of J. California Cooper's "Swimming to the Top of the Rain," I blinked three times in a row and stopped. I may have had a "one of these things is not like the others" kind of moment. Truthfully, I stopped on page 291 and looked up J. California Cooper on my phone. Because I had a sneaking suspicion she was the only Black author in the 20-author collection.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

In the next 30 minutes, I came to the crushing realization that I had purchased what amounts to a 90s white feminist treasure trove. :( :( :( I read Cooper's entire story, the ONLY story in the entire collection featuring a protagonist who is non-white. That character, Care, is an orphaned seamstress and piano teacher who struggles to keep herself and her family out of poverty and prostitution. Guess what? She fails, but she keeps trying! Oh dear. In addition, the entire story is written in AAVE, a clear departure (on purpose?) in a collection of white speaking narrators. But wait, there's more. Brace yourself.

There is an "author's note" at the end of each story to describe the context of writing the piece. Per the theme of literary anthologies (the premise of the collection), it helps the analysis to understand the themes and considerations of the author. Guess which story (the only story) does not have an author's note? J. California Cooper.

. . . . . . . . . . holding this space for the appropriate rage gif . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So then I went back to the front of the book and reread the introduction. Guess which story gets the smallest mention, including the only paragraph with no specific description of the main character and her plight? J. California Cooper's "Swimming to the Top of the Rain."

This is a literary blackface performance.

It is shameful. It reeks of white privilege. Dear Katrina Kenison and your insightful Wikipedia page , you and your coeditor Kathleen Hirsch did a disservice to J. California Cooper and to women of color writers everywhere.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book because I heard one of the authors speak: Roxanne Robinson. Her story was fabulous. This collection also included a story by Barbara Kingsolver- you can never go wrong with her.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this look into modern motherhood. It brings back memories of raising my own kids and points up the difficulties of contemporary mother hood. I raised my children in a more "Mother friendly" time so this was an insight into what my grandchildren and their parents have added to the job of paremtimg.

[Carrie]

essays

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some stories were too 80's, some were downright depressing (especially the one about the junkie who wanted to throw her baby over a rail and take off, apparently with the author's blessing).

[Carol Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent compilation of short stories that run the gamut of mother-child relationships. Love (and dread) the old lady.

[Kristine · Rating 2 out of 5]

there were a few stories included in this collection that were so moving I was in tears. but the majority I didn't even get through because I found them offensive.