Support WBUR
Cog's Weekly Newsletter
Writing is for mothers
Editor's Note: This essay appeared in Cognoscenti's newsletter of ideas and opinions, delivered weekly on Sundays. To become a subscriber, sign up here.
I’ve been saying all week that Mother’s Day is essentially Cog’s Super Bowl. I’m joking, of course. But for an outfit like ours, which publishes a substantial number of personal essays every year, moms are a well-trod topic.
Whether a mother-child relationship is healthy and attached, or difficult and estranged, vibrant, bound by grief, or somewhere in between, as certain as the day is long: mothers and motherhood is good fodder for the page, and not just for Cog’s contributors.
I think about Elissa Altman’s “Motherland,” or Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” or “Inheritance,” by Dani Shapiro — intimate, emotionally layered memoirs about complex characters and relationships. Then there are authors including Sara Petersen, Angela Garbes and Chelsea Conaboy who examine motherhood through a more analytical lens, or the poet Kate Baer, whose work drips with the daily experience of being a mom. (Those last four writers were featured panelists at a CitySpace event we hosted a few years ago.) And I can’t leave out Nicole Graev Lipson, whose 2023 memoir-in-essays “Mothers and Other Fictional Characters” blends literary criticism and personal reflection in a way that feels intimate and restrained.
Over the eight-plus years I’ve been at WBUR, I’ve read more essays about mothers than I can reasonably count. I’ve been fortunate to edit many of these favorites: “My mother’s secrets” by Tracy Strauss; “How long does it take to forget someone” by Kathy Gunst; “I love my kids, but I loathe Mother’s Day — especially this year” by Sharon Brody; “My mother and the sea” by Marianne Leone; “The summer house” by Laura Shea Souza.
This year, we have a terrific offering of new essays to mark the day: an excerpt of a much longer essay from the Delacorte Review (a publication affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism) about the bewilderment of early motherhood, as well as essays about stepmothers as steadying forces, the generational knowledge lost and found in kitchens and mothers as fierce advocates.
Just for fun, we also have a piece this week about the “Devil Wears Prada 2,” which is decidedly not about motherhood. In the film, Meryl Streep’s character Miranda Priestly openly admits that her children have never been her priority. Perhaps in the next sequel, Miranda’s twins co-write a memoir about their mom? Think about it, Hollywood.
Whatever this day means or doesn’t mean to you, whoever you are holding close or missing from afar, we wish you well.
P.S.— We had a wonderful response to our request for “little joys” last week. If I haven’t yet replied personally to your email, I will! If you meant to send something in, but lost track of it — it’s not too late. We’d love to hear from you. We’ll be publishing a collection of entries in a piece on our website and on the radio. Here’s what to do: Send a list of everyday things that make you happy to opinion@wbur.org with “The List” in the subject line.
