I think my boundaries are fairly fluid and ever shifting! Since having my second child I found myself shifting from fiction (young adult manuscripts) to poetry (with motherhood and children as key themes)
Fluid and ever shifting is the name of the game, I think, especially if your kids are smaller! Was the change in genre related to how your time and energy charged with a second kid, do you think, or just where the work was taking you?
I think it was a bit of both. After my first I held fast to the kind of writing and reading that I had been doing before, probably because it felt like keeping a part of the pre-motherhood me. With my second, I had been reading more poetry, having come across some fantastic female poets who wrote about being a woman, motherhood etc, which was in sharp contrast to those poets studied at school and university. I think I wanted a space to write about those experiences of motherhood. And I’d also burned out drafting a manuscript with a baby and toddler and pandemic lockdowns all at the same time. I still have ideas for fiction, including some YA, but poetry is my priority for the moment. And I love the ability to explore different styles, subjects and tones in poetry without having to spend years working on just the one thing!
I'm maybe a little biased because I came into my writing life as a poet, but I really think it's the optimal genre for life with little kids--you can pick it up and put it down, you can try out all kinds of new things--it's a very porous and expandable container for an unpredictable stage of life!
a little personal recommendation--I co-edited an anthology, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, that's poems, essays, and writing prompts about a wide range of mothering experiences--and it's 50% off right now at UGA with the code 08SALE: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820360546/the-long-devotion/
I also loved The Long Devotion. The first poets I came across that were writing about motherhood were Kate Baer, Maggie Smith and Carrie Fountain. Also Bronwen Tate, some of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are on motherhood, Camille T Dungy, Hollie McNish (from England) and Nancy’s solo collection Pocket Universe, if you haven’t already read it.
I think my boundaries are fairly fluid and ever shifting! Since having my second child I found myself shifting from fiction (young adult manuscripts) to poetry (with motherhood and children as key themes)
Fluid and ever shifting is the name of the game, I think, especially if your kids are smaller! Was the change in genre related to how your time and energy charged with a second kid, do you think, or just where the work was taking you?
I think it was a bit of both. After my first I held fast to the kind of writing and reading that I had been doing before, probably because it felt like keeping a part of the pre-motherhood me. With my second, I had been reading more poetry, having come across some fantastic female poets who wrote about being a woman, motherhood etc, which was in sharp contrast to those poets studied at school and university. I think I wanted a space to write about those experiences of motherhood. And I’d also burned out drafting a manuscript with a baby and toddler and pandemic lockdowns all at the same time. I still have ideas for fiction, including some YA, but poetry is my priority for the moment. And I love the ability to explore different styles, subjects and tones in poetry without having to spend years working on just the one thing!
I'm maybe a little biased because I came into my writing life as a poet, but I really think it's the optimal genre for life with little kids--you can pick it up and put it down, you can try out all kinds of new things--it's a very porous and expandable container for an unpredictable stage of life!
Which poets do you read that are writing about motherhood? Would love to check them out
a little personal recommendation--I co-edited an anthology, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, that's poems, essays, and writing prompts about a wide range of mothering experiences--and it's 50% off right now at UGA with the code 08SALE: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820360546/the-long-devotion/
Thanks I just ordered it!
Ahh I hope you love it ❤️
I also loved The Long Devotion. The first poets I came across that were writing about motherhood were Kate Baer, Maggie Smith and Carrie Fountain. Also Bronwen Tate, some of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are on motherhood, Camille T Dungy, Hollie McNish (from England) and Nancy’s solo collection Pocket Universe, if you haven’t already read it.
What a great collection of poets! And thank you so much for including me in it. 😊 I've got a good creatures with @Bronwen Tate coming up!
thank you for this space, Nancy -- and all that you do!
Thank you for being a part of it! ❤️