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Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood
This text presents a literary anthology focusing on mothering and writing. 22 writers, who range in reputation from seasoned professionals to noteworthy new talents, reveal the intimate challenges and private rewards of nurturing children while pursuing the passion to write.
- GenresNonfictionWriting
280 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2008
About the author
Shannon Cowan
6 booksShannon Cowan received her Masters in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Her first novel, Leaving Winter, was published in 2000. In 2002 she won the Eden Mills Literary Prize, was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Competition, and received the Norma Epstein Award for Creative Writing for the Tin Angel manuscript. In 2008, Tin Angel received a nomination for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and was named as one of the best books of the year by Quill and Quire. In 2008, Shannon co-edited Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood, a collection of creative non-fiction. Shannon lives on Vancouver Island where she is writing her first novel for middle grade readers.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 29, 2009
MOST non-fiction books about mothering are textual versions of Anne Geddes photos: babies as scrumptious flowers.
In these texts, it goes unquestioned that mothers would cheerfully sacrifice all for the opportunity to tend their fat-cheeked blooms.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, mostly notably in American novelists Anne Lamott and Louise Erdrich's accounts of the first year of their children's lives.
But what about after the first year? How do women who make art as well as babies cope?
A new anthology from McGill-Queen's University Press delves into what it means when a woman writer's "room of one's own' is converted into the baby's room.
Including some 25 respected Canadian literary writers, among them Robyn Sarah, Anne Simpson and Janice Kulyk Keefer, as well as Manitobans Di Brandt and Sally Ito, Double Lives is probably best defined by what it is not.
It is not a book of writing exercises for women looking to make "good use" of their mat leave (ha!).
Neither is Double Lives a collection of pregnancy and mothering-themed poetry and fiction, though given the contributors, such an anthology would probably have been worth picking up.
Finally, it is not a how-to book, as there are as many ways of being a writer/mother as there are of being a mother.
What the anthology proves, however, is that each writer found a way, however fraught with compromise, however beleaguered, to write.
For a few of the contributors, their careers, their first books, are still becoming. For others, the account of first books and first babies is just another story in a long bibliography.
And that's immensely reassuring and worthwhile in and of itself.
The process of making art - and parenting - is often, as Montreal poet Robyn Sarah put it, "a season of crashing around in the woods, stumbling and bumbling through days without any shape to them."
While no book will "give shape" - the best one can usually hope for is commiseration or proof that writing and mothering are possible - Double Lives reaches further in attempting to create a community for writers through writing, which is the best way to reach bookish girls anyways.
The goal of the 2007 anthology Between Interruptions was essays about motherhood, which sometimes included discussions about writing and mothering but sometimes not.
The modus operandi of the three Dropped Threads books, edited by Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson, was to examine aspects of women's lives that weren't being discussed in the mainstream.
Double Lives, on the other hand, sets up on camp directly on the teeming anthill that is writing with children.
The only catch? The target audience for this book, budding artist/mothers, will have to use precious me-time in order to feel better about not having any me-time.
(from my review which appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press May 11, 2009.)
In these texts, it goes unquestioned that mothers would cheerfully sacrifice all for the opportunity to tend their fat-cheeked blooms.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, mostly notably in American novelists Anne Lamott and Louise Erdrich's accounts of the first year of their children's lives.
But what about after the first year? How do women who make art as well as babies cope?
A new anthology from McGill-Queen's University Press delves into what it means when a woman writer's "room of one's own' is converted into the baby's room.
Including some 25 respected Canadian literary writers, among them Robyn Sarah, Anne Simpson and Janice Kulyk Keefer, as well as Manitobans Di Brandt and Sally Ito, Double Lives is probably best defined by what it is not.
It is not a book of writing exercises for women looking to make "good use" of their mat leave (ha!).
Neither is Double Lives a collection of pregnancy and mothering-themed poetry and fiction, though given the contributors, such an anthology would probably have been worth picking up.
Finally, it is not a how-to book, as there are as many ways of being a writer/mother as there are of being a mother.
What the anthology proves, however, is that each writer found a way, however fraught with compromise, however beleaguered, to write.
For a few of the contributors, their careers, their first books, are still becoming. For others, the account of first books and first babies is just another story in a long bibliography.
And that's immensely reassuring and worthwhile in and of itself.
The process of making art - and parenting - is often, as Montreal poet Robyn Sarah put it, "a season of crashing around in the woods, stumbling and bumbling through days without any shape to them."
While no book will "give shape" - the best one can usually hope for is commiseration or proof that writing and mothering are possible - Double Lives reaches further in attempting to create a community for writers through writing, which is the best way to reach bookish girls anyways.
The goal of the 2007 anthology Between Interruptions was essays about motherhood, which sometimes included discussions about writing and mothering but sometimes not.
The modus operandi of the three Dropped Threads books, edited by Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson, was to examine aspects of women's lives that weren't being discussed in the mainstream.
Double Lives, on the other hand, sets up on camp directly on the teeming anthill that is writing with children.
The only catch? The target audience for this book, budding artist/mothers, will have to use precious me-time in order to feel better about not having any me-time.
(from my review which appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press May 11, 2009.)
April 3, 2009
This book is a compilation of personal essays from Canadian authors. As a writer and mother I enjoyed reading and relating to the struggles and challenges these authors faced. I did not agree with some of the choices that some of the authors made but it certainly did not detract from the book as a whole.
August 7, 2010
A collection of poignant essays by Canadian writers and mothers. I loved them all so much for their honesty and the depth of truth they described. Each had it's own voice and yet they blended into a terrific anthology of what it means to be a mother and writer.
I also wrote a review here: http://coffeesandcommutes.com/2011/04...
I also wrote a review here: http://coffeesandcommutes.com/2011/04...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews