The Long Devotion
Poets Writing Motherhood
Title Details
Pages: 248
Illustrations: 5 b&w images
Trim size: 6.120in x 9.250in
Formats
Paperback
Pub Date: 04/01/2022
ISBN: 9-780-8203-6054-6
List Price: $27.95
Web PDF
Pub Date: 04/01/2022
ISBN: 9-780-8203-6058-4
List Price: $27.95
Web PDF
Pub Date: 04/01/2022
ISBN: 9-780-8203-6867-2
List Price: $27.95
Subsidies and Partnerships
Published with the generous support of Sustainable Arts Foundation, Tony and Caroline Grant
Related Subjects
The Long Devotion
Poets Writing Motherhood
Intimate and honest voices on contemporary motherhood
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- Description
- Reviews
- Awards
- Contributors
The Long Devotion is a collection of poems, essays, and writing prompts that celebrates motherhood and creates a space, as poet Molly Spencer has written, to “tell an unlovely truth about family life and not have to take it back.”
The poets in this book represent and describe a wide range of experiences. They write about encountering the world anew through their children; intersections of parenting and race; single parenting; adoptive, foster, and step-parenting; life with chronic illness, mental illness, and disability; and the choice to remain childless. The book is divided into four parts. “Difficulty, Ambivalence, and Joy” considers the wonder and challenges of parenting—including infertility, pregnancy, miscarriage, and life with children—and trying to write in the midst of those demands. “The Body and the Brain” explores the cerebral and bodily labor of caregiving and writing. “In the World” brings parents and their children into contact with the natural and political landscape. Finally, “Transitions” looks at how parenting and writing change as children grow up. Poems range from linear narratives and imagistic lyric to poetry comics, speculative futures, and experimental forms. Essays and poems suggest ways to write through the disruptions and chaos of family life. Prompts invite readers to use the work in this book as a starting point for their own poetry.
As candid accounts of motherhood become more prevalent across literary, pop culture, and digital spaces, the way we talk about writing and mothering is changing. Poets have long challenged traditional motherhood narratives. This book brings together a new generation of exciting and provocative voices for the first time.
—Sandra Beasley, author of Made to Explode
—Geffrey Davis, author of Night Angler
—Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of Field Guide to the End of the World
—Katherine Indermaur, Colorado Review
—Crystal Rowe, Literary Mama
Short-listed
Best Anthology, Colorado Book Awards
Diannely Antigua
Zeina Hashem Beck
Remica Bingham-Risher
Sarah Blake
Allison Blevins
Mahogany L. Browne
Julie Carr
Sunu P. Chandy
Tina Chang
Victoria Chang
Nicole Cooley
Teri Ellen Cross Davis
Laura Da’
Meg Day
Kendra Decolo
Emari DiGiorgio
Chelsea Dingman
Alexa Doran
Carolina Ebeid
Heid Erdrich
Chanda Feldman
Beth Fennelly
Carrie Fountain
Krista Franklin
Shamala Gallagher
Sherine Gilmour
Aracelis Girmay
Jenn Givhan
Camille Guthrie
Lauren Haldeman
Pamela Hart
Faylita Hicks
Joan Naviyuk Kane
Joy Katz
Keetje Kuipers
Joy Ladin
Eugenia Leigh
Raina J. León
Shara Lessley
Kim-An Lieberman
Layli Long Soldier
Kwoya Fagin Maples
Joyelle McSweeney
Lynn Melnick
Erika Meitner
Jasminne Mendez
Clarissa Mendiola
Emily Mohn-Slate
Lisa L. Moore
Sara Mumolo
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
January Gill O’Neil
Emmy Pérez
Kiki Petrosino
Catherine Pierce
Khadijah Queen
Chelsea Rathburn
Jordan Rice
Natalie Shapero
Brenda Shaughnessy
Sun Yung Shin
Maggie Smith
Megan Snyder-Camp
Molly Spencer
Melissa Stephenson
Alison Stine
Angela Narciso Torres
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Sarah Vap
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Hope Wabuke
Sasha West
Monica Youn
Rachel Zucker
