ABOUT THE MAGAZINE
Mission Statement
As a mother and a writer, I have many hopes and dreams for the future. Not only for my children, of course, but for me as a writer. Motherhood is not an easy job. As a matter of fact, it is possibly THE most difficult job in the world. However, try to throw in being a mom and a writer – mom writer, and the job gets even tougher. But you know what? I wouldn’t trade my job for anything in the world. Really.
When I founded Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine two years ago (June 2005), I was bursting with ideas for this literary magazine for moms (which still continues today!). I envisioned a quarterly magazine written by moms, for moms, on the ups and downs and many, many challenges of motherhood. Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine would honor the fulfilling and tedious work that women do by making their stories visible through print.
Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine seeks writing that is vivid, complex, and practical. We are not looking for “sugar-coated” material. We believe the art of Motherhood is deserving of literary attention. We are a literary magazine for mothers with something to say. We’re proud to have published essays that are emotionally moving, smart, raw, and sometimes, humorous.
Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine is a publication written by moms for moms across the globe who come together to share their stories. We publish creative nonfiction essays, fiction, columns, book reviews, profiles about mom writers and visual art.
~Paula Schmitt, Founding Editor & Publisher
About the Editors
Paula Schmitt – Founding Editor and Publisher, is a writer living in Vermont with her husband and five children. She has been featured in The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald, The Burlington Free Press, The Times Argus, Kids VT, Adopting for Tomorrow magazine, Adoption Today magazine, Penwomanship magazine, The Herald of Randolph, and in online parenting magazines such as ThePhilosophicalmother.com and RaisingOurKids.com. Her syndicated column runs on various websites, including JustForMom.com and SanityCentral.com. She also has her syndicated column in Kids VT Family Newspaper and has been quoted in American Baby magazine, Parenting magazine, Family Circle magazine, All You magazine and Real Simple magazine. Her award-winning book, Living In a Locker Room: A Mom’s Tale of Survival in a Houseful of Boys is available at your favorite online retailer and at all bookstores. She launched her radio talk show for mom authors, Mom Writer's Talk Radio, November of 2005. You can read Paula’s writing and get more information about her book at her website paulaschmitt.com and check out her blog at RealSavvyMoms.com.
Samantha Gianulis, Editor-in-Chief and Regular Columnist, writes from Southern California where she lives with her husband and their three children. Her first book, Little Grapes on the Vine: Mommy's Musings on Food & Family released March 2007. She has written for several print and online publications, including Hybrid Mom Magazine, San Diego Family Magazine, recipestoday.com, and alongstoryshort.net. She is also a columnist for Family Food Network (http://www.familyfoodnetwork.com). Her website address is http://www.samanthagianulis.com. Check out her blog at http://samanthagianulis.blog.com.
Jane Hammons, Senior Editor, received an
Academy of American Poets award at the University of New Mexico in 1975 when she began publishing poetry. She has been writing ever
since and has published fiction and nonfiction in journals and magazines such as Alaska Quarterly Review; Brain, Child: The Magazine
for Thinking Mothers; Natural Bridge; Rhino; River Walk Journal; Slow Trains Literary Journal; taint; and Word Riot. She also teaches
writing at UC Berkeley where she is the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two
teenage sons who provide her with plenty of material and a view of
the world that would be very different without them.
Marsha Kaslon, Managing Editor, lives in rural central Nebraska with her husband and four children. She attended and graduated from Bellevue University in 2006 with a Bachelors in business administration. Currently, she works for the City of Grand Island as the Community Development Administrator. Her duties there include grant writing and housing issues, as well as the non-profit liaison for those needing a municipality to partner with. Balancing four children with farm life and a career definitely has its trials and pitfalls, but the moments that are special and humorous keep Marsha grounded. She is currently researching a novel she has been working on the last six months, and also writes short stories. Her children are her inspiration for writing daily and she likes to keep a humor journal for when the kids say something particularly witty. Her husband, John, is her foundation and continually pushes her to reach her dream to becoming a published writer.
Jessica Ramsey Golden, Copy Editor, has held a variety of writing-related jobs including reporter, managing editor and columnist at a weekly newspaper. Her work has placed in several competitions as well as winning the 2006 Eleanor B. North Poetry Award. Golden’s poetry has appeared in Understory and The Rectangle. She and her husband live in Alaska with their 1-year-old daughter, Esmé. She earned a BA in English from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Jackie Papandrew, Profiles Editor and Regular Columnist, airs out her rather soiled sense of humor about everything under the
sun – from the comfort of granny panties to the agony of aging gums and
sagging, er, gams. She tickles the funny bone with tales of troublesome
teenagers, the trials of testosterone, and using Formula 409 as foreplay. Jackie's writing has won awards from the Florida Magazine Association,
the American Association of Business Press and the Florida Freelance
Writers Association, among others. Her humor columns have appeared in a
variety of publications, including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Please visit JackiePapandrew.com to read additional humor columns and to sign up for a FREE
email version of Airing My Dirty Laundry. You can contact Jackie at Jackie@JackiePapandrew.com.
Jennifer Brown, Reviews Editor and Regular Columnist, is a freelance writer with award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appearing in over a dozen publications around the world. Jennifer's work has appeared in Writer's Journal, Australia's The Messenger, Long Story Short, and Simple Joy, just to name a few. Jennifer most enjoys writing humor essays, and her humor column, "Adrift in the Gene Pool," appears bi-weekly in The Liberty Sun News. In 2005, Jennifer's humor essay, "Fling Shui for Beginners," won first prize in the global humor category of the Erma Bombeck contest. Jennifer is also a book reviewer for Bookpleasures, Road to Romance, Foreword Reviews, and TCM Reviews, and teaches essay-writing and book reviewing classes for Writer's Success.com and humor writing classes at Long Story Short School of Writing. To find out more about Jennifer's work, visit www.freewebs.com/jennifer_brown.
Tracy Lyn Moland , Co-Cover Editor and Regular Columnist - Over the past few years, best selling author Tracy Lyn Moland, B. Ed. has established herself as a highly sought after and internationally recognized life management and marketing expert. You may recognize Tracy Lyn’s ideas and advice from magazines like Reader’s Digest, Chatelaine, or Women’s Day as well as her series on Good Morning Canada and appearance on Living it Up! With Ali and Jack. She has been featured in over 500 media outlets and presented in three countries. Her expertise has lead to her work as a spokesperson for Johnsonville Sausages, Crayola, TJ Maxx, and Whirlpool appliances. Tracy Lyn’s books Mom Management and Quotes of Inspiration have provided much needed advice and sanity in our crazy world.
Stephanie McCarty, Co-Cover Editor and Regular Columnist, Stephanie McCarty's Fumbling Toward Motherhood column appears regularly in
print and online publications. One of her columns will be included in the
upcoming release: Chicken Soup for the New Mom's Soul (Health Communications
Inc.; April 2007).
Stephanie worked in PR and media relations full-time for more than a decade,
before starting her own writing and consulting career. She says, "During my
professional tenure, I have worked on political campaigns, in the halls of
Congress, and in corporate PR - but nothing could have prepared me for the
roller-coaster ride that is motherhood."
Stephanie currently lives in Ohio with her husband and daughter, who is the
joy of her life. She credits her little girl with inspiring her to find her
true writing passion.
Read more of Stephanie's work at www.fumblingtowardmotherhood.com, or contact her at Stephanie@fumblingtowardmotherhood.com.
Melissa Fulwider, Writer’s Resource Editor - Mom, writer, chief cook and bottle washer. Married with two toddlers, she never runs out of blog fodder. She writes regularly for OcalaCafe’.com and Underwired Magazine. She has contributed to Mommy Mentors web site, conducts The Adland Interviews Series, and is the web master for several sites, including her own (TheWriteTimes.com). Being in her early thirties, she is re-designing her life around kids, chaos, and minor catastrophes. Melissa absorbs trivia, enjoys classical music, and is a tenacious Tetris player.
Veronica Hosking, Poetry Editor, is a stay at home mom, which works out well for her writing career. Her two daughters are a great inspiration for her writing. She wrote a creative nonfiction story, "Carousel," about her oldest daughter's love of horses. The story was printed in the anthology, Forget Me Knots from the Front Porch (Obadiah Press 2003).
In the year 2005, she saw her second print publication - "In a Tree" was published in the anthology, Cosmic Brownies (Sun-rising Poetry Press). Her poem, "Morning Accolade" was published in Whispers of Inspiration (Sun Piper Press) later that same year.
About the Columnists
Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi, Regular Columnist, is a work-at-home mom with a bachelor’s degree
in electrical engineering and a specialization in telecommunications
from Concordia University in Montreal. She chose to stay home full time
with her three children after working as a telecommunications engineer
for twelve years. When her youngest child started school in 2002, she
decided to pursue her second passion: writing. Lucie now works from home
as a freelance writer, editor, and web designer. She currently
writes mainly for adults but loves to write for children, too. Her writing has been
published at justformom.com, sanitycentral.com,
institutechildrenslit.com, and reallygreatinfo.com. In February of 2005, she sold her first children's piece to Highlights for Children magazine. Lucie is also
senior editor and webmaster for justformom.com and works part-time for
a Montreal engineering firm where she is responsible for the development
and management of technical training manuals and materials. You
can find out more about Lucie's work by visiting her web site at
www.LucieBouchardAntoniazzi.com. In her spare time, Lucie likes
to read, listen to music, take tae-bo classes, and spend as much
time as she can with her family. She lives with her husband and their
three children in
Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Sharon J.
O’Donnell, Regular Columnist, is an award-winning newspaper columnist, who specializes in
humor columns. Since 1998, Sharon has been a columnist for The Cary
News, in Cary, NC (just outside of Raleigh) and has won awards for
those columns. She has also written for Good Housekeeping, The News
& Observer, and Blue
Mountain Arts greeting
cards.
Sharon
is a 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(she used to live in the same dorm as Michael Jordan!!) with a degree in
print/broadcast journalism. Since then she’s worked in radio
promotions, special events planning, public speaking, and public
relations.
Her current project is a humorous book of
essays about what it’s like to be the only woman in a houseful of males,
dealing with a husband, three sons, and a male dog.
Sharon also writes fiction. In 1997,
her novel manuscript, Hand-Me-Downs, was a finalist in the Heekin
Group Foundation’s James Fellowship for the novel-in-progress division.
An excerpt from her current novel-in-progress, Bluebirds Fly, was
published in the Sunday Reader section of The News & Observer,
the Raleigh paper, in December of 2002. In the spring of 2003, she won
third place in the short story division of The Paul Gillette Memorial
Writing Contest, sponsored by the Pikes Peak Writers Conference.
Since 2000, she’s taught narrative writing through
week-long writing residency workshops in schools and is a
writer-in-residence through the United Arts Council. She has also done
public relations consulting that has resulted in successful media
coverage for various programs and events.
Jacob’s Ladder, a volunteer group she helped start in honor of
her nephew who underwent a successful bone marrow transplant in 1993,
won a national award called the HOPE award in 1997 for raising testing
money and promoting the bone marrow registry to minorities.
She lives in Cary with her husband Kevin and their three sons
ages 14, 11, and 5 (ages of this writing in late 2005).
Her Websites are
www.momsofboys.org and www.sharonodonnell.com.
Lisa Rickwood, Regular Columnist, is passionate about helping people slow down and enjoy their lives. She is
the founder of Escape The Pace®,
a business dedicated to helping people live a happier, relaxed life
while pursuing careers, raising families, and making their dreams come
true. This was a spin-off from her highly regarded book,
Escape The Pace: 100 Fun And Easy Ways To Slow Down And Enjoy Life. Lisa has helped dozens of
professionals, entrepreneurs, and executives improve their lives by
offering: seminars, play-shops, keynote talks, books, greeting cards,
gift boxes, e-books, and an e-zine.
Lisa was born in
Vancouver, Canada, and raised in the Okanagan in British Columbia.
She has a visual art degree from the University of Victoria
and is an accomplished international visual artist. She also spent years
working for two large newspapers as an advertising consultant before
becoming co-owner of a high-end menswear store with her husband on
Vancouver Island. When she’s not at the store or working on her business, she’s taking care of her
husband, two sons, and step-son.
She is a sought-after
speaker and has lectured at colleges, Health and Wellness Shows,
business networks, Rotary Clubs, and large organizations. She is a
regular contributor to Woman’s World magazine as well as Synergy and Pure Woman magazine. She has been featured in
Common Ground magazine and the
The Berkeley Psychic Institute Newspaper. Two well-known
U.S. authors will feature her in their books, respectively,
Mom CEO and Less Than Perfect.
Lisa is passionate
about being involved in a world-wide movement about work/life balance
and was asked to participate in a conference in Seattle called:
Take Back Your Time (www.timeday.org).
She looks forward to helping others ‘take back’ their lives.
Karen Rinehart, Regular Columnist, is the creator of The
Bus Stop MommiesTM a syndicated newspaper and magazine humor
columnist, public speaker and author of the book, Invisible Underwear, Bus Stop Mommies and Other Things True To Life.
Karen has been dubbed this generation’s Erma Bombeck while Editor &
Publisher Magazine named her a possible replacement for Dave Barry. Karen lives in Concord, NC with one husband,
two children, and two goofball dogs.
Read more at www.busstopmommies.com.
Denise Roy, LMFT, M.Div, Regular Columnist, is an author, a licensed marriage and family therapist, a popular speaker, and a mother of five. Her books and audiotapes include Momfulness: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace (Jossey-Bass, 2007), My Monastery Is a Minivan (Loyola Press, 2001) and Meditations for Mothers (Random House Audiobook, 2007). Her essays have also been included in these books: Your Children Will Raise You; I Like Being a Mom; The Miracle of Sons; Spiritual Surrender; and Humor for a Mom's Heart.
Denise and her husband live in the San Francisco Bay area; they have three grown sons, an eleven-year-old daughter, and an eighteen-year-old foster daughter from Iran. For more information, please contact her at denise@deniseroy.com and visit her website at www.DeniseRoy.com.
Dionna Sanchez, Regular Columnist, has a passion for encouraging moms and a love for writing. Her
greatest desire is that they would enjoy who they are and what their
role in the home is as a parent, wife, and individual woman. Dionna has
the gift of compassion and counts her blessings while trying to keep her
own priorities straight as a mom, wife, and individual. She chose her
teammate in her husband Eliseo and they raise their three children in Idaho. Dionna created Emphasis On Moms to help share encouragement and
happiness with other moms. She encourages moms not to forget their
marriages while they parent and is always honest in her articles;
inspiring many. Her website ministry can be found at EmphasisOnMoms.com.
Linda Sharp, Regular Columnist, is an internationally read author, columnist, event speaker, and
media guest who
makes people
laugh and think from Maine to Malaysia. Enjoy
her book Stretchmarks On My Sanity and add her daily blog, Don't Get Me
Started, to your online favorites! Look for her new book, Femail:
A Comic Collision In Cyberspace this winter! Give her a Google - you'll be glad you did.
Julie Watson Smith, Regular Columnist,
is a mom of three and founder of Mommy Hullabaloo. More than just a
parenting column, it is a national company inspiring moms to
get organized and energized while learning, living, and loving the chaos
of mommyhood! Julie is also the author of Mommyhood Diaries: Living the
Chaos One Day at a Time (Wyatt McKenzie Publishing, 2005) and the
upcoming Mommy Hullabaloo’s Guidebook to Learning, Living and Loving the
Chaos of Mommyhood (TBD). Visit Julie at mommyhullabaloo.com.
About the Graphics Design and Branding
Nancy Cleary, Graphics Design and Branding, is an advocate for work-at-home moms - her
publishing company, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing Inc., named for her two
children, celebrates seven years of bringing the ideas of mom writers
and entrepreneurs to fruition. Behind-the-scenes stories of mompreneurs
are featured in Cleary's series "The Best of Mom's Business Magazine
Volumes 1-4". Other mom titles include "I Love My Life: A Mom's Guide to
Working from Home" by Kristie Tamsevicius, "Mom's Work-at-Home Kit &
Workbook" by Lesley Spencer, "Today's BlueSuitMom Magazine" by Maria
Bailey, and current hot-seller, "14 Hours 'Til Bedtime" by Jen Singer.
In January of 2005 Nancy launched The Mom-Writers Publishing Cooperative to publish talented mom writers,
providing authors with a five-digit advance package, major book store
distribution, and everything they need to make their publishing
experience an empowering and profitable venture. Nancy Cleary has been quoted
in Business Week, Working Mother, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal,
Family Circle, Home Business Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine
and featured in three best-selling books: "Marketing to Moms: Getting Your
Piece of the Trillion Dollar Market" and "The Women's Home-Based
Business Book of Answers" both by Maria Bailey, and "The Self-Employed
Woman's Guide to Launching a Home-Based Business" by Priscilla Y. Huff.
Cleary has a BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design
and has run a successful design studio out of her home office in
Deadwood, Oregon since 1992.
Karrie McAllister, Webmaster, Graphic Design and Regular Columnist, has dabbled in everything from coal mining to culinary classes. She and her family live in Northeast Ohio where conversations in the grocery store and pierogis are as common as Amish buggies. Her local column, Small Town Soup, appears in local newspapers and is also the author of Small Town Soup: Good for what ails you. Read more of Karrie at her website, www.KarrieMcAllister.com.
