Mother Talk

New digs

2006-08-08T12:36:00.000-04:00

Come check out MotherTalk at its new digs, and in its new incarnation: as MotherTalk, Inc.

Over there you'll find the MotherTalk blog about what we're up to (currently a Blog Book Tour for Washington Post reporter Tracy Thompson's The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children, and Struggling with Depression), who we are, how to get in touch with us, and what's on the horizon.

We won't be updating here any longer, so be sure to bookmark the new blog!

Mother Talk: Charlottesville -- March 23

2006-03-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

Next Thursday, March 23, will see our first Mother Talk in Virginia. Andi and Miriam will be talking about their books with the editors of Brain,Child magazine in Charlottesville. Click here for the full invite!

Coming in April: Mother Talk salons in Philadelphia, DC, Portland, and Seattle.

Berkeley Mother Talk: March 13

2006-03-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

The Literary Mama editors enjoyed our January Mother Talk in San Francisco so much they've organized another one -- this time featuring "Mommy Wars" anthology editor Leslie Morgan Steiner along with contributors to the Literary Mama anthology. The event takes place Monday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. (See the full evite.)

Buzzing after Judy Stadtman Tucker's MotherTalk: Philly

2006-03-04T21:56:00.000-05:00

It's definitely a rare pleasure these days to stumble home after midnight on a few glasses of wine. Even more of a pleasure, really, when I've spent the last few hours in the company of Judy Stadtman Tucker, Andi Buchanan, and a roomful of thoughtful and energetic women. Judy is the editor of Mothers Movement Online. She's also an eloquent and thoughtful speaker, someone who in the name of a refreshingly new feminism can synthesize all that's going on in the world of motherhood: in our interior lives, in the cultural debates we find ourselves in, in the policy intiatives on the horizon.

All I can say is that she's the kind of person that when she looks around the room at 11.30 pm, after several hours of conversation, and says expansively, "This is the revolution," well, you feel like indeed, you're part of the new century's take on the early 70's famed CR groups. You see yourself as part of history. She has that effect on you.

Andi got this email today: "Thank you for an engaging, enlightening, interesting evening. It was a
pleasure to be in the company of so many thoughtful women. I was especially struck by the very personal feel of the discussion -- I came away with a true sense of connectedness, although I only knew maybe a
quarter of the women present.

We're loving MotherTalk for the space it opens up for us to whole women, to talk about literature and media, politics at large and the micropolitics of who gets dinner on the table, all in the space of one evening, one living room, one rolling conversation.

MotherTalk Mt. Airy--Saturday, March 18th, 5 pm

2006-03-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

Last month MotherTalk teamed up with the Big Blue Marble Bookstore, in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy section, and Andi and Miriam talked with an energetic group of moms, as the snow began to fall. In fact, the discussion was cut short as the store decided to close early, given the blizzard outside.

This month, MotherTalk and the Big Blue Marble are joining once again to present NPR commentator Marion Winik, author most recently of Above Us Only Sky. Come in, come all, no rsvp: Saturday, March 18, 5:00pm.

The wonderful new Big Blue Marble Bookstore is at 551 Carpenter Lane, at Greene, in Mt. Airy. Call 215 844 1870 for directions.

The Marble's website description:
MotherTalk with Marion Winik. Come drink wine and laugh with Marion Winik, NPR contributor and author of the new Above Us Only Sky (Seal Press). Wine and cheese, parenting discussion, and book signing/reading.

MotherTalk Philadelphia: March 3, 7:30 p.m.

2006-02-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

Please join us for "Mother Talk," an old-fashioned literary salon with good food, good company, and good conversation with local authors Andi Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz talking with Judith Stadtman Tucker, editor and founder of The Mothers Movement Online.

The Mothers Movement Online was founded in April 2003 as open source for information about social, cultural, economic and political issues that affect the well-being of mothers. The site features high quality content on mothers’ issues, including original features, interviews, essays, reviews, and commentary on motherhood as a social issue; its intention is to promote economic and social justice for mothers and others who do the caring work of our society. Judith Stadtman Tucker, MMO's founder, has been involved in research and advocacy related to mothers’ issues since 1999. She served as the senior manager of the Mothers & More advocacy program from 2000 – 2003, where her work included gathering resources and developing consciousness-raising programs for the organization’s membership. She currently serves as a special advisor on advocacy issues to Mothers & More and other groups committed to social change on behalf of mothers.

To see the invite, click here.

MotherTalk Philadelphia: Saturday February 11

2006-02-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

It's Andi and Miriam together, at our first ever MotherTalk in a bookstore. And a special bookstore it is at that: the newly opened independent Big Blue Marble in Philly's Mt. Airy section. This Saturday, 3.30 pm. See you there!

Follow up: Mother Talk Sacramento 1.14.06

2006-02-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post about the Mother Talk in Sacramento ever since I got back -- it was a great afternoon. Jennifer Margulis and I drove up together from Berkeley and arrived in Sacramento right on time to meet Sheri and Amy from Mamazine. Our hostess, Mary Beth, was awesome, and we spent some time before the event started just chatting with the people who showed up, talking about gossip magazines and celebrity babies and people with perpetually clean houses. Then we sat down and got started. We talked a bit about Literary Mama and Mamazine, and what both publications try to do. I read my piece from the Boy anthology and we had a lively discussion about gender and what boys are "allowed" to wear, play, act like. Mary Beth, our hostess, put forth her theory about people who are three: namely, no matter whether you are boy or girl, if you are three years old, you like things that are sparkly, you like things that are shiny, and you like things that are pink.

After a wide-ranging conversation on that general subject, Jennifer read her essay from the Boy collection, which I wrote about here. It's a very personal, moving piece, and afterwards some of the women shared their own experiences similar to Jennifer's. We talked, too, about how difficult it is both to write about the intensely painful and personal, and to work with that kind of writing as an editor. From there the discussion ranged even further, and people started breaking off into smaller groups -- and somehow nearly four hours had passed. Jennifer and I eventually said our goodbyes and thank-yous and headed back to the car for the drive to Berkeley. I finished packing, caught a few hours of sleep, and then headed back to Philadelphia.

Amy and Sheri also sent me a link to another Mother Talk they hosted in their area -- this one centered around conversation between mothers and grandmothers. They were awesome enough to post a transcript of the event here. (I wish we'd thought of doing that for these other events!)

MotherTalk in Sacramento

2006-02-01T11:03:00.000-05:00

Here's the wonderful moms at Mamazine.com writing about the first Sacramento MotherTalk they hosted, grandma-and-moms talk.

Any Miami Readers out There?

2006-02-01T10:55:00.000-05:00

Miriam Peskowitz will be in Miami and South Florida in late March. While there, I'll get to see my newborn nephew Isaac who entered this world early Tuesday morning. While there I'd love to do a MotherTalk. Are there any enterprising, entertaining moms in the area who are eager to host a MotherTalk with Miriam and Truth Behind the Mommy Wars, on March 26th through March 28th? If so, email Miriam (miriam.peskowitz@verizon.net). Feel free to spread the word if you live elsewhere but know someone in South Florida who would be energized by an evening of mom-talk.

Your MotherTalk hostesses, Andi and Miriam, will soon be composing a guide to setting up a MotherTalk. We'll post it as soon as we can to make hosting a MotherTalk easier than pie.

Follow up: Mother Talk San Francisco 1.13.06

2006-01-27T07:55:00.000-05:00

The San Francisco Mother Talk event was hosted by Literary Mama editor Caroline Grant, who wrote an entry on the LM blog about the night. Caroline was a gracious hostess, particularly because she didn't seem to mind that I arrived about an hour and a half later than I'd planned and also smiled while I complained about jet lag and public transportation once I finally got there. I was also charmed by her son, who showed me many ways to construct a toy flugelhorn.

Then the women arrived -- some Literary Mama readers, some Literary Mama editors, an old friend of Martha's, an old friend of mine, a blogging friend (who blogged about the night here), and many others. I read my piece from It's a Boy and Jennifer Margulis was on hand to talk about Boy and LM, and, as always seems to be the case with these things, the discussion went on for hours that seemed to pass like minutes. We talked about mothering, and also about judgment, and also about being inbetween the worlds of work and motherhood. As Caroline put it, "a big topic of conversation was the extent to which any of us is able to claim an identity other than mother -- if we don't get paid for the work we do, or only do it part time, we're thought, or even think ourselves, to be just 'dabbling.'" It's fascinating to me that, no matter what city I'm in, or what kind of group of mothers I'm talking to, these same things come up again and again.

I'm hearing that Mother Talk might become a regular thing in SF -- developments posted at the blog and at the emerging Mother Talk site.

See a few photos of the night here!

Mother Talk: Seattle, 1.10.06

2006-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Seattle Mother Talk, like last year's event, was so much fun. Marjorie hosted it again, in her lovely home, and about 30 women came -- some of whom I recognized from when we were there last spring. Marjorie supplied quesadillas, beer, and chips and salsa, and other guests brought cookies and wine and other yummy things. Marjorie also set up a table for donations to a local organization, ChildHaven, and women brought with them baby clothes and toys to donate to the group.

We had four readers: Marjorie, who introduced us all and read a sweet, sweet piece about her son and finding community in coffee shops; Heidi, who read excerpts from her new book; myself, who read my essay from the LM anthology; and Martha, who read her great essay from "It's a Girl." We had a bit of discussion in between each of the readings -- Heidi's excerpts sparked fun conversation about post-baby sex and marriage; after my piece we talked about how as mothers we are often so stoic about pain and can only really discuss pain and difficulty in the context of one-upsmanship or powering through it; and after Martha's we talked about growing up as girls, which led to talk about raising sons and daughters, which eventually led to a great discussion on work and motherhood.

In that sense this Mother Talk was a kind of a blend of other Mother Talks I've done -- it was the gender talk of the recent Mother Talk in Philadelphia, the discussion of maternal judgment that comes up in every city and every Mother Talk, and the work/career subject that was the focus of our November Mother Talk with Miriam. The women in Seattle shared everything from their experience with the way parenting was viewed in their corporate environments (we had several surprisingly inspiring stories, one sadly familiar story) to the ways in which they had created their own work for themselves while they balanced early motherhood (starting a small business employing other primary caregiver moms) to their stories of shifting completely out of the workplace into home life. There were women there who had tiny babies; women whose children were grown and in college; women who worked outside the home, women who worked inside the home, women who did a little of both. The common ground among all the mothers there was, like it is at every Mother Talk, a fundamental interest in discussion -- in talking about these kinds of things with other women, in connecting.

You can view the slideshow here for a visual taste of what the night was like.

Mother Talk: Sacramento - January 14

2006-01-04T18:30:00.000-05:00

The gals from Mamazine.com host the Sacramento Mother Talk on January 14 at 4:30 p.m. From the invitation:

Please join us for "Mother Talk," an old-fashioned literary salon with good food, good company, and good conversation with writers Andi Buchanan and Jennifer Margulis, talking about Andi's books It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons and Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined and Jennifer's new book Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained.

To view the invitation and RSVP, click here!

Mother Talk: San Francisco - January 13

2006-01-04T18:25:00.000-05:00

Caroline Grant hosts the San Francisco Mother Talk on January 13 at 7:30 p.m. From the invitation:

Please join us for "Mother Talk," an old-fashioned literary salon with good food, good company, and good conversation with writer Andi Buchanan and editors and contributors to Literary Mama, talking about Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined. Andi is managing editor of LiteraryMama.com, author of Mother Shock, and editor of It's a Boy, Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined, and It's a Girl.

To view the invitation and RSVP, click here!

Mother Talk: Seattle - January 10

2006-01-04T18:08:00.000-05:00

Marjorie Osterhout hosts the Seattle Mother Talk on January 10 at 7 p.m. From the invitation:

Please join me for Mother Talk Seattle 2006, our annual motherhood salon and hoedown! This is a great chance to talk with other moms about how we can connect with and support one another. It's also a chance to reflect on the ways our culture makes it hard to raise our children well, and how we can join together to make it easier.

Parenting author and speaker Andi Buchanan will read from her recent book anthology "Literary Mama." Essayist and humor writer Martha Brockenbrough will also read from her book "It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond." And Heidi Raykeil, aka The Naughty Mommy, will talk about her new book, "Confessions of a Naughty Mommy: How I Found My Lost Libido."

Also, in the spirit of supporting mothers and children, please consider bringing a new or unused baby item for Childhaven, which helps abused and neglected children and their families. Clothes, toys, diapers, books, baby food and cash are all needed. Thanks for considering it!

To view the invitation and RSVP, click here!

Mother Talk South Carolina: Upcoming events

2005-12-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

Our recent Mother Talk in South Carolina was so well received that LiteraryMama managing editor Amy Hudock is putting together some more Mother Talk events in the coming months, and she'll act as a moderator for the salons. Here is a preliminary schedule, with some recommendations from Amy:

January
We'll be talking about the new anthology Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined Try to get the book before the meeting, and we'll all read favorite excerpts or pieces from the book to get us going. The focus: motherhood and creativity. The first chapter of the book includes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction about being both mothers and writers. We'll be exploring the question of how to keep the creativity alive while raising children. To get some ideas for your own writing, you can read Amy's article about journaling through motherhood.

February
We'll be talking about another Literary Mama editor's book, Heidi Raykeil's Confessions of a Naughty Mommy: How I Found My Lost Libido. The focus: motherhood and sex. We'll try to get the author for a conference call chat with us about her book. You can read an excerpt of her book online, and also read her past "Sex in the Suburbs" columns on Literary Mama. There is also a chapter in Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined called "Sex, Fertility, and the Body" that includes essays by Heidi Raykeil and other mothers on sex and motherhood.

March
We'll be talking about Marritt Ingram's Inconsolable; How I Threw My Mental Health Out with the Diapers. The focus: Does becoming a mother make you crazy? What exactly is postpartum depression? Who does it affect? Does someone you know have it? You can read excerpts from the book online at Marrit's site.

April
We'll be looking at Andi Buchanan's companion book to "It's a Boy" -- "It's a Girl." The focus: raising girls in today's society. Maybe we can get Andi to come back for another visit! [I hope I can! If not, I'll do the conference call chat!]

Mother Talk SC Follow-Up

2005-12-12T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Mother Talk in South Carolina was really enjoyable. The women there were very excited to participate, and many of them told me afterwards they had never done something like this before, but now that they had, they wanted to make it a regular thing. And in fact it looks like there will be another South Carolina Mother Talk in January!

We gathered at the hostess' house in the afternoon and milled around for a bit, talking and eating and drinking wine. Then we sat down and started talking about "It's a Boy," and about our experiences with sons and the boys in our lives. There were women with teenage sons, women with toddler sons, women with sons and daughters, and women who didn't have boys. Everyone had interesting things to say about the way boys and girls are expected to be, and the way they interact with each other. Eventually, though, the subject turned -- as these things always do -- to judgement, and the way that parents (and specifically mothers) judge each other. From there we talked about feminism, about politics, about blame and insecurity and banding together instead of fighting each other.

Afterwards a woman told me, "Sitting there talking about all this, I was thinking, my gosh, this is the kind of thing I've always wanted to do but never had the chance to before. I hope this is the start of something!"

I hope so, too!

Our Blogging Baby Mention

2005-12-11T20:23:00.000-05:00

Here's our mention at Blogging Baby. Our Philly Inquirer coverage was noted--and so too was the fact that we use the word "salon" without sounding pretentious. Go MotherTalk team! Whew! As most people who've met us will attest, we try to keep it real, down to earth, and unpretentious. We know "salon" can conjure images of 19th century Victorian ladies, and those in our own age who emulate them. We're not that, just a bunch of scrappy mother authors trying to get through the day and get other moms (and dads) together and talking.

Thanks, Blogging Baby, for seeing us as we are.

Upcoming Mother Talk Events

2005-12-09T14:19:00.000-05:00

In addition to tomorrow's Mother Talk in South Carolina, there are more Mother Talks on the horizon -- in January, Andi will be doing one in Seattle, one in the Bay Area, and one in Mt. Airy, PA, to promote It's a Boy; we're also planning DC Mother Talks in February and April with Andi, Miriam, and Marion Winik; and Andi will be doing one in Philadelphia featuring local contributors when It's a Girl comes out this spring.

Interested in putting together a Mother Talk in your town? E-mail us at mothertalk @ gmail . com and we'll tell you how!

Mother Talk South Carolina

2005-12-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, December 10, will see our first Mother Talk in South Carolina. From the Charleston Post & Courier:

Writers plan literary salon
Summerville resident Hope McIntosh will hold the area's first "Mother Talk" event, an old-fashioned literary salon with food, good company and conversation, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

This event will feature "Literary Mama's" Amy Hudock and Andi Buchanan about Andi's new anthology, "It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons."

"Mother Talk" events with a wide range of visiting authors have been held in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, Berkeley, and other major cities. This will be the first held in the South.

Both Amy Hudock and Hope McIntosh teach English at Pinewood Preparatory School in Summerville.

"It's a Boy" features 30 essays on the mysteries of boys by writers such as Jodi Picoult, Jaquelyn Mitchard, Caroline Leavitt, and Catherine Newman.

Visiting writer Andrea J. Buchanan, the managing editor of the online magazine "Literary Mama," is a writer living in Philadelphia.

Mother Talk in the Inquirer

2005-11-21T08:11:00.000-05:00

The piece begins:

Mothers have always talked about mothering, among themselves. Now they're letting the world listen in through a burst of books and online writings that chronicle the caprice of child-rearing, and through gatherings called Mother Talk that started in Philadelphia and are spreading to other cities. The latest Mother Talk "salon," an idea spawned by two local authors, took place last week when 30 women sat in a red-walled Van Pelt Street living room and discussed topics as diverse as the motherhood experience itself: from how to deal with little boys who play dress-up (let them be) to the hows and whens of talking to kids about sex (scary and varied). "We're trying to spread the idea of mothers getting together and talking, around the country," said Miriam Peskowitz, 41, a Mount Airy writer and teacher who is expecting her second child next month. "In terms of gathering mothers to talk about motherhood, and it being free and neighborhood-based, Philadelphia is leading the way."

Read the whole article here! (Use BugMeNot for access if you're not registered with the site.)

Mother Talk Philadelphia

2005-11-21T08:10:00.000-05:00

The Mother Talk event on Thursday the 17th was great -- well-attended, entertaining, just a lot of fun. Part of this was due to Marion Winik, who is pretty much a traveling party. She is hilarious, knows how to spin a story, always ready with a dead-on quip.

The evening started out with people drinking wine and eating food and catching up with friends; there were many people there who had been to the last Mother Talk with Miriam and a few people who had attended the Time Out! event at the end of October. There was a reporter from the Philly Inquirer there, and she asked us a lot of questions while everyone milled about and the Inky photographer snapped pictures. Once the small-talk was done, we convened in Elise's living room and got down to business.

Miriam spoke for a bit about both Marion and I, and about her thoughts on reading our most recent books. Then Marion read one of my favorite essays of all time, "Mrs. Portnoy's Complaint," or, as it was title when it ran on Salon, "Gods and Monsters." (Warning: if you click on that link, be prepared to sob hysterically, especially by the end.) Marion is a fabulous reader -- those 15 years of NPR experience sure pay off -- and she had the crowd in the palm of her hand as she ranged between the hilarious and heartbreaking. The ending of that essay is one of those that just gets you, and it was hard not to cry just listening to hear read it. It was a powerful reading of a powerful piece about the necessity of your children separating from you, staking out their own ground in direct defiance of you, being cruelly in opposition to you.

After she finished the essay and everyone composed themselves, she shared a story about how she was invited to read the piece at a high-school assembly, and how frightening and incredible it was to say this stuff to the kids -- who, in the end, were able to identify with her and her perspective as a mother in a way they hadn't ever considered before. Miriam wrote about this kind of power of the personal essay on her Playground Revolution blog:

When writing becomes so personal, when good writing becomes so personal, it takes a 180 degree turn. We may think it's narcissism, we may think it's about something so narrow it only pertains to one person's experience, but there's the turn, waiting to surprise us. Just when we think it's just about the particular, the writing flowers and it's about the biggest broadest expanse of human life. It's breathtaking when it happens.

Then we talked about "It's a Boy," and there was a lot of great audience participation, with women sharing their stories about raising sons. Since many of the people there had been to the Time Out! event where I'd read from Mother Shock and the Boy book, I ended up reading Catherine Newman's sweet and funny piece from "It's a Boy" titled "Pretty Baby." What fun to read someone else's words instead of my own! And a pleasure to read a great writer aloud. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud over passages like this:

Or is the worry just that pink will keep Ben from achieving his proper patriarchal birthright? .... Will Ben’s preschool class photo be uncovered one day and threaten his entry into the World Wrestling Federation? Will those pink-threaded boyhood outfits prevent him from registering a firearm or sucking beer out of somebody’s ass crack at a fraternity hazing? Will he be clinically incapable of slouching in front of the Super Bowl like an overgrown, chili-fed larva? Or do we just worry that he won’t know how to camouflage himself properly as an imbecile

when a lover tries to enter together with him into the world of human feelings?

The reporter picked a great night to come -- the conversation was bawdy and funny and raucous even as it was serious and thoughtful. (My favorite line of the night, when Marion was talking about teenagers and sex, and the fultility of pressing for abstinence: "Why do we want to stop the people who want to have sex the most from having it? Tell middle-aged people to stop having sex! Then that approach will actually work!")

The evening wound down around 10:30 or 11, and I was able to hang out a bit with Marion and Miriam, which was really nice, as up until now Marion is someone I've only known via email, and as Miriam is 9 months pregnant and due in about 3 minute and hasn't been able to make it into town for coffee lately. It was a wonderful night, just a pleasure to talk about interesting things with women who were interested in joining the discussion.

And to the woman who arrived with her annotated, underlined, dog-eared, post-it-note bedecked copy of Mother Shock -- you made my night!

Mother Talk NYC: Nov. 19

2005-11-06T09:40:00.000-05:00

Saturday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m.

Please join us for "Mother Talk," an old-fashioned literary salon with good food, good company, and good conversation with Andi Buchanan and contributors to her new anthology, It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons.

It's a Boy features 30 essays on the mysteries of boys and includes the work of NYC-area writers Ona Gritz, Gwendolen Gross, Caroline Leavitt, Sue O'Doherty, Lisa Peet, Maura Rhodes, Rochelle Shapiro, and Kate Staples. Joyce Maynard says of the book, "Andrea Buchanan has put together a terrific collection of diverse voices on the subject... These are funny, true, and occasionally heartwrenching essays [that] make me wish I could do it all again."

For the official invitation, please click here.

Mother Talk Philadelphia: Nov. 17

2005-11-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

Thursday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m.

Please join us for "Mother Talk," an old-fashioned literary salon with good food, good company, and good conversation with local writers Andi Buchanan and Marion Winik, talking about Marion's latest book Above Us Only Sky as well as Andi's new book It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons, to which Marion is a contributor.

Marion's writing has appeared in Redbook, Self, Cosmopolitan, Salon and many other publications. She is the author of five books, inluding The Lunch-Box Chronicles: Notes from the Parenting Underground, and is a regular commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered." Above Us Only Sky is her newest collection of essays covering everything from motherhood to midlife.

For the official invitation, please click here.

Mamazine talks to Andi about Mother Talk

2005-11-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

From Mamazine.com's interview with Andi, Surviving Mother Shock:

mamazine.com: Can you tell us a little about MotherTalk, the reading/discussion series you and Miriam Peskowitz have started?

It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons, out next month); and one in New York City on November 19 featuring myself and several NYC-area contributors to It's a Boy.

blog

What is MotherTalk?

2005-10-06T23:26:00.000-04:00

[posted by Miriam]

Last January, Andi and I learned that mother author Faulkner Fox was visiting Philadelphia with her son. Not content to just let her have a vacation, we asked if she wanted to participate in a book event. She said yes, and then Andi Buchanan and I, not content to just call a few pals, decided to start a movement (okay, I'm overstating a bit). An evening's not good enough, it needs a title, it needs continuity, even though we're busy, we need to start an institution that gathers mothers together for talk, food, conversation.

MotherTalk was born. A few emails later, LiteraryMama.com was our sponsor. Now we have a new co-sponsor, Time Out, a new Philly-based organization that gathers moms for fun and a night out every so often. We've had several MotherTalks since then, as our author friends come through town on book tours or family getaways.

What I love about MotherTalk is that we get to talk about real issues. There's something about talking at night, when mothers revert to grownup time, that's very special. Yes, there's a theme here, about reclaiming our evenings for inspired talk and vision. Moms get together. After the last one, in which Faulkner envisioned the end of mothers judging each other, and the start of feminist revolution, I wondered how many such gatherings would be necessary to really start the buzz, to start a cultural shift in which we know our issues as moms, and we have more strength to shoulder the confusing political and cultural times in which we live (front page NYTimes, anyone?)