writermag.com • The Writer | 39Palumbo was also excited to feature
Alizabeth Worley’s “Lullaby” (2/24/20).
“It’s a short essay about rocking a baby
to sleep and about what sleep means to
motherhood on so many different lev-
els,” she says. “Sometimes, sleep hap-
pens too fast, or you can’t get a child to
sleep. She plays with the word in a lit-
erary way.”
Mothers Always Write includes a
small percentage of writing by
fathers. “We’ve published some really
tender, honest pieces from dads about
their viewpoint on motherhood,”
Palumbo says.
One of these pieces was a poem by
Eric Roller “it is time tho” (6/16/19).
The piece explores his complicated feel-
ings about sending his daughter off to
college and how little she appears to care
about their impending separation. The
poem struck a chord with a poet, Ingrid
Anders, who published a response piece
(8/19/19). Titled “Push Me!,” it begins:
“You graduated preschool yesterday.
Today is the first day of summer break
and we are together all day. I am anx-
ious about the loss of my writing time.
My quiet time. My me time.”
“We had a guy’s point of view, and
“A bi-monthly, online
literary magazine for
mothers and mother
writers who consider
parenting to be their
highest calling.”
POETRY, LITERARY ESSAYS, AND
BOOK REVIEWS.
Reading period: Year-round.
Length: To 2,000 words.
Payment: Up to $25.
Submission format: Via website.
Contact: Editor-in-Chief
Julianne Palumbo at
[email protected],
mothersalwayswrite.comthen the point of view of a mother who
was very much taken by his poem,”
Palumbo says. Both contributors com-
mented on each other’s pieces online,
so readers were able to witness their
dialogue around parenting and writing.
The editors also build community
by offering online “Boot Camps.” For
up to three weeks, participants receive
one-on-one coaching and peer review
from other attendees for poetry or
essays, via a private Facebook group.
“We work with writers to produce
three drafts of a piece and provide
them with writing exercises and arti-
cles,” Palumbo explains. “We’ve worked
with a ton of new writers, and an over-
whelming majority have gotten their
pieces published.”Advice for potential contributors
The editors aren’t looking for political
writing or profane pieces, and they’re
not interested in submissions that dis-
credit faith. They look for essays, non-
rhyming poetry, and book reviews that
explore the experience of mothering
children birth to age 12, in middle
school and high school, and as adults.
“There’s a ton of mother writing out
there, so it’s going to be difficult to
come up with a brand-new issue that
no one has ever written about,”
Palumbo says. She suggests that
instead, writers approach topics with a
new angle, with some new insight that
others haven’t explored.
“I’m not a person who’s into trend,”
she explains. “So much trendy writing
dictates how we should think about
things because someone has dubbed it
a big issue. I don’t want to see trendy
writing in our magazine. I want to see
someone’s unique experience written so
well that everyone understands it.”Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the
author of Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books
to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Accep-
tance in Tweens and Teens (Sasquatch, 2019).
Twit ter/Instagram: @WildMelissaHar t GOTHAMWRITERS.COMCreative Writing
Classes in NYC
& Online@thewritermag
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