Author: Mom Egg Review
MER Bookshelf – July 2025 Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley Catherine Gigante-Brown, Immigrant Hearts, Volossal, March 2025, literary fiction (novel Immigrant Hearts is a vintage love story that stretches across more than 40 years, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Antonio and Luisa are two lonely Italian garment industry workers who meet by chance in the wilds of Brooklyn. These gentle souls build a life together, chasing dreams, weathering loss, finding refuge in the beauty of opera, books and each other. Inspired by true events, richly imagined by the author. The first part is told from the POV of…
Review by Angela Williamson Thoughtfully curated, Commodore Rookery, by Christy Lee Barnes, captures and recasts the first year of parenthood. Through the lens of the rookery, where the speaker goes for inspiration, insight, and wonder, the familiar challenges of parenting an infant—sleepless nights, feeding difficulties, relationship changes—become transcendent. The mother’s identity, rather than being merely lost or blurred, metamorphosizes—expands beyond the self, through time and across species. Despite its lofty reaches and the recurring rookery visits, the collection itself is solidly grounded. Although not explicitly stated, the poems seem to be arranged chronologically, opening with “Late Postpartum Dream Sequence”…
Reviewed by Susan Blumberg-Kason I first became familiar with Jennifer Lang’s writing just after she published her first book, Places We Left Behind. It included all the ingredients I enjoy in a memoir: a cross-cultural story, an unusual structure, and settings far from home. In Lang’s case, she is known for writing very short chapters that still manage to pack in as much content as found in more traditionally structured memoirs. Lang met and married a French Israeli man decades ago and wrote about the many ways in which she navigated her international marriage, including where they chose to…
Review by Lara Lillibridge Mothers and Other Fictional Characters by Nicole Graev Lipson is smart, sexy, highly relatable book. Lipson’s prose delves into what it means to be a woman, mother, and daughter and had me exclaiming, “Yes! Exactly!” audibly as I read. It’s the kind of intelligent read that sparks conversations—the perfect buddy read or book club pick. Lipson has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, selected for The Best American Essays anthology, and shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review, River Teeth, Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review…
Review by Emily Webber Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation, Sarah Yahm’s debut novel, follows the unforgettable Rosenberg family—consisting of Leon, Louise, and their daughter Lydia —over forty years as they navigate life, especially in the face of a terminal diagnosis. Despite the heavy subject matter, this novel remains irreverent, quirky, and funny. As Louise learns she has a genetic illness that affects Ashkenazi Jews, she agonizes over the impact on her daughter, both her ability to be a parent as her body becomes more disabled, and wanting to spare her daughter from becoming her caretaker or witnessing her decline.…
Submissions Are Open Until 7/15 MER will be open until July 15, 2025 for literary and art submissions to our annual print issue on the theme of Mother and Family. All submissions are through Submittable. We publish poetry (up to 3 poems, no more than 5 pages), and fiction, creative prose/nonfiction, and hybrid works (up to 1000 words) on mothering or motherhood. We also seek mother-themed art. You need not be a mother to submit. Our calendar conforms to Eastern Time. The theme of this issue will be “Mother and Family.” What We’re Looking For: Work that focuses on a mother’s interactions with other…
Tamar Jacobs GOOD WHOLESOME AMERICAN THING I sat away from the street on a curb mostly hidden behind a bush to allow them the illusion of independence and I heard people tell them, my sons, 7 and 9, so many things. People asked what they planned to do with the money they made and some tested their math as they asked for change, and some asked if they’d done their homework and one told one of them he could take off his mask because it was safe, we’re outside, and one asked my other son if he had…
Review by Mindy Kronenberg Unassuming women of fierce literary imaginations can find themselves historically reduced to spinsterhood or a perceived existence of wistful eccentricity, myths that contribute to a legacy of emotional isolation that diminishes their artistic prowess. In Two Emilys Andrea Potos summons the presence (and personal influence) of two iconic writers, who serve as literary spirit-guides—Emily Dickinson and Emily Bronte—inspired by and integrating their creative energies into her everyday life, from youth to seasoned poet. Both poets, who avoided fame during their lives and were renegades in their own right, float through these pages with an air…
Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley Pramila Venkateswaran, Exile is not a Foreign Word, Copper Coin, November 2024, poetry Exile is not a Foreign Word addresses the kinds of barriers we experience in our lives that affect us for generations. Venkateswaran documents the different political borders she has experienced, from seeing the effects of Partition on India and Pakistan, to the exile of women within families and within one’s own country. The consequences of wall-building to divide gender, caste, race, and class are violent in their enforcement, and traumatize us for generations. These poems also explore the resilience of human…