May 7, 2014, Wednesday - Motherhood & Words Reading at The Loft

Time: 7:00pm

Location: The Loft at Open Book (Performance Hall), 1011 Washington Ave S

Motherhood & Words Reading

Join us for Kate Hopper's 8th Annual Motherhood & Words Reading, a showcase of excellent literary nonfiction about motherhood, featuring Tami Mohamed Brown, Susanne Paola Antonetta, and Marcelle Soviero.
 
So often in our society, writing by a group of people is lumped together and dismissed. This has certainly been the case with motherhood literature. In 1976, Adrienne Rich began Of Woman Born with this: “We know more about the air we breathe, the seas we travel, than about the nature and meaning of motherhood.” Almost four decades later, we have made progress: there are several stellar literary journals that feature fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that grapple with the dark and beautiful truths of parenthood; motherhood scholarship has found a place in some academic settings; and a number of fine memoirs about motherhood have been published. Yet, motherhood literature is still largely ignored, and motherhood memoir, christened “momoir,” is routinely dismissed.
 
But like all great writing, literature about motherhood, is, as Patricia Hampl says about memoir, “an attempt to find not only a self but a world.” Motherhood literature is not about motherhood; it uses motherhood as a lens through which to see the world.
 
Tami Mohamed Brown received her MFA in creative writing from Hamline University. She has been the recipient of a Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship, a Loft Mentor Series Award, a MN Emerging Writer Grant, and an artist residency through the National Park Service at Devil’s Tower. Tami writes regularly for the Minnesota Women’s Press, and her work has recently appeared in Brevity, Mizna, Sweet, Literary Mama, and in the anthology, The Heart of All That Is:  Reflections on Home. She is finishing work on her memoir, The First American Wife:  Barefoot and Pregnant in the Nile Delta. She lives in Bloomington with her Egyptian husband and teenage daughter, and finds inspiration on her daily bus commute to her 9–5 office job in downtown Minneapolis.
 
Susanne Paola Antonetta’s most recent book, Make Me a Mother, a memoir and study of adoption, was published by W.W. Norton in February of 2014. Awards for her poetry and prose include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, a Library Journal Best Science book of the year, a Lenore Marshall Award finalist, a Pushcart prize, and others. She is also coauthor of Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining and Publishing Creative Nonfiction. Her essays and poems have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Parade Magazine, Orion, and many anthologies. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband and son. Her website is www.suzannepaola.com.
 
Marcelle Soviero is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, an award-winning literary magazine for mothers. She is the host of Carousel, a 22-year running Cablevision/Internet interview-style talk show, and the author of An Iridescent Life, Essay son Motherhood and Stepmotherhood. Marcelle’s essays have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Huffington Post, Babble.com, Salon, Literary Mama, Eating Well, New York Metro, and Brain, Child. She has also appeared on American Public Media’s radio show, The Story. Marcelle lives in Wilton, Connecticut with her husband and five children.

About Kate:
Kate Hopper is the author of Ready for Air: A Journey Through Premature Motherhood and Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers. She teaches writing online and at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. Kate holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, two Minnesota State Arts Board Grants, and a Sustainable Arts Grant. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals, including Brevity, The New York Times online, and Poets & Writers. She is an editor at Literary Mama. For more information about Kate’s writing and classes, visit  www.katehopper.com.