A beautiful mother / Marianne Gingher -- The imagined sorrows of my mother's face / -- Michael Malone -- You dumb bell / James Seay -- From Tehran to Florida : Pouri joon's fierce love / Omid Safi -- I want to undie you / Jaki Shelton Green -- Are you my mother? / Jill McCorkle -- Child bride / Daniel Wallace -- Settling into marriage / Phillip Lopate -- Encore / Alan Shapiro -- Frankye / Frances Mayes -- Shut up! We're going to the Masters / Marshall Chapman -- Helen of Marion, the woman behind the velvet mask / E.C. Hanes -- Estate sale / Sally Greene -- The good fight / Jacquelyn Dowd Hall -- The Persian Mom Mafia / Melody Moezzi -- La chingona / Stephanie Elizondo Griest -- Scuppernongs and beef fat : some things about the women who raised me / Randall Kenan -- My mother, my muse / Clyde Edgerton -- Ties that blind / Hal Crowther -- Beatrice and Mamie / Belle Boggs -- Keeping secrets / Sharon K. Swanson -- The curse of living in interesting times / Samia Serageldin -- Drag racing to the promised land / Lynden Harris -- This is your mom / Elaine Neil Orr -- One hundred years of letters / Margaret W. Rich -- A mother and son reunion / Steven Petrow -- The last word / Bland Simpson.
Summary:
"In this anthology of creative nonfiction, twenty-eight writers set out to discover what they know, and don't know, about the person they call 'Mother.' ... Writers Lee Smith and Samia Serageldin have curated a diverse and insightful collection that challenges stereotypes about mothers and expands our notions of motherhood in the South. The mothers in these essays were shaped, for good and bad, by the economic and political crosswinds of their time. Whether their formative experience was the Great Depression or the upheavals of the 1970s, their lives reflected their era and influenced how they raised their children. The writers in 'Mothers and Strangers' explore the reliability of memory, examine their family dynamics, and come to terms with the past"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.