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Meet Colleen Couch-Smith
Published October 2007 on Mamaphonic.comColleen Couch-Smith, 30, is an artist, restaurateur, mother of three (Brendan-13, Ian-5, and Ayden-2), and newest member of Memphis Roller Derby’s Legion of Zoom. I was really excited to meet her and thought you might be too...(Read more)
Interview with China Martens
Published April 2007 on HipMama.comBefore the internet made it easier to network with other alternative parents, before there was a genre of mama zines, or even Hip Mama, there was "The Future Generation: The Zine for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others." Created by China Martens in 1990 (after the birth of her daughter in 1988), the zine was unlike any other. Her mother, who read to her from as early as one month old and fashioned cut-and-paste picture books for her as a toddler, was her original zinester influence. She has a short story "On The Road (with baby)" published in Breeder: Real Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers; is a columnist for Slug and Lettuce; and won the 2002 Baltimore City Paper "Best Of" zine award for "I was...a Student Nurse." Seventeen years later, China is still cranking out issues of her groundbreaking zine—most recently #15 "The Raising Teenagers" issue. She spent the last year compiling all of the issues into one too-good-to-be-true volume: "Future Generation: The Zine-Book For Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends And Others."
China and I have been long-time Internet friends and have collaborated on Mamaphiles, a mama zinester collaboration. When I heard about her new book, I couldn’t wait to (virtually) sit down and chat with her about the journey that led to it...(Read more)
Meet Kate Crowder
Published January 2007 on HipMama.com
At 9:00pm on a Friday, I was busy trying to get my monkeys (Satchel, age 4 and Jiro, age 2) in bed so I could sneak out and interview Kate Crowder, the lead singer of my new favorite band, Two Way Radio (formerly known as Walkie Talkie and briefly as Side Walk Talk). At 9:25pm, I said goodbye to my husband and drove down the street to a local bar where Kate said she'd be hanging out until their 11:00pm show time. As I nervously walked into the nearly empty bar, I saw Kate and her husband/bandmate, Corey, slip out the back door. I picked up my pace and headed towards the door hoping she hadn't forgotten our interview.
"Kate!" I hollered out the back, trying not to sound too desperate.
"Oh hey Stacey," Kate said as she came walking over. "I was just checking on this sign we spray painted a few minutes ago.
I looked over her shoulder and saw a large piece of black fabric with a yellow walkie talkie (I assumed, even though it looked more like a cellphone) in the center.
"Instead of changing our name again, we're just going to be known by this symbol," she joked. "You know, kind of like Prince."
"Cool, " I said laughing along.
"Let's go inside and get a beer," she said.
"Great idea," I said....(Read more)
Building Community, One Mama at a Time
Published 2006 in Off Our BacksBeing a part of several mama communities has helped make my parenting experience enjoyable and fulfilling. Over the past four years, I have found that communities come in many different forms. By getting involved in local groups, taking advantage of online resources, and publishing a quarterly parenting zine, I have connected to other mamas in ways I never dreamed possible.
When I was on maternity leave with my first son, I spent most days at home watching the mind-numbing line-up of dating and makeover shows on TLC (The Learning Channel). When he would nap, I'd get online and chat with "synchro" mamas that I'd met at Hipmama.com when I became pregnant. The synchros were my main source of empathy, information, and entertainment. And thanks to the Internet, it was instant. Not instant in the sense that I could confer with them about my son choking, but instant enough that I could come back from lunch and have a handful of opinions regarding the weird rash around my right areola...(Read more)
An Interview with Jennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkinson
Published 2006 on LiteraryMama.comJennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkinson founded Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers in 1999. The two former journalists were both new mothers who yearned for something more than the standard advice, how-tos, and product placement found in mainstream parenting magazines. After a year of planning, the duo launched a quarterly literary magazine for mothers with personal essays, features, fiction, reviews, editorials, and cartoons. Today, the magazine has a circulation of over 30,000 and has won several Independent Press awards...(Read more)
Hell on 8 Wheels
Published May 2006 on Imperfect Parent
I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. And surprisingly my two and four-year-old aren’t to blame.
I’ve been lying in bed thinking of taglines for the Memphis Roller Derby logo, rink names for some of my new skater friends, and drills to try out at our next practice. Sometimes I just lie there and imagine myself jamming through a row of blockers while the announcer screams, “Smashimi scores again!”...(Read more)
Interview with Andi Buchanan
Published March 2006 on Mamazine.com
Andrea Buchanan has long been a bright star in the mama genre, with her first book Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It and the three recent anthologies that followed It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons, It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters, and Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined. Guest interviewer Stacey Greenberg talked to Andi recently about the Sacramento Mother Talk event, her blog book tours, and the Literary Mama site and its resulting anthology....(Read more)
Interview with Hilary Flower
Published February 2006 on Mamazine.com
Hilary Flower, a unschooling mother of three, recently published her second book, Adventures in Gentle Discipline, which is a refreshing break from the many tomes written by Dr. I Told You So. In writing this book, Hilary relied on the successful format she used with Adventures in Tandem Nursing that includes using a "friend to friend" tone, testimonials from real mothers in the trenches, useful quotes and ideas, and first person narratives. I recently interviewed Hilary via email to learn more about the woman behind this much needed addition to the "How To" shelf....(Read more)
Interview with Marrit Ingman
Published November 2005 on Hipmama.com
Marrit Ingman's memoir on postpartum depression, Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health Out with the Diapers, is on the shelves now. The book is smart, funny, and groundbreaking. She writes honestly about her struggle to effectively parent her high-needs child when all she wanted to do was drive off a highway overpass.
Stacey Greenberg, the creator of the zine Fertile Ground: For People who Dig Parenting recently talked with Marrit via email to discuss the book, talk about the current state of motherhood, and even make fun of Dr. Sears a little.(Read more)
An Interview with Bee Lavender
Published 2005 on LiteraryMama.comBee Lavender, author of the memoir Lessons in Taxidermy: A Compendium of Safety and Danger, is the publisher of Hip Mama and co-editor of the anthologies Breeder: Real-Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers and Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts. She lives in Cambridge, England with her fifteen year-old daughter, eight-year old son, and her husband Byron, a research scientist. In an interview with Stacey Greenberg, Lavender discusses the evolution of her writing, teen motherhood, and how being a parent influences her activism...(Read more)
Participant Observation
Published 2004 on LiteraryMama.comI get most inspired when I am being held down on a bed by my nipples with no pen in sight. Pardon the pun, but nursing really gets my juices flowing. I often lay in the dark with baby Jiro at my breast, ideas spinning, and the computer -- relegated to a "time-out" -- tempting me from the corner. If I get a really good idea, I try to repeat it in my head over and over and over again in the hopes that I can remember it long enough to write it down. As I switch sides nursing, I think, What would Satchel do all day if left to his own devices . . . What would Satchel do all day if left to his own devices . . . I'm in a constant state of production -- formulating ideas, writing them down, typing them up, putting them together in my zine, and looking for other places to publish them...(Read more)
Interview with Muffy Bolding
Published May 2005 on MamaphonicStacey first came across Muffy Bolding on her Live Journal friend’s page a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t until she read her essay in Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts that she realized she needed to know everything about her. She spent weeks stalking Muffy online and really enjoyed getting to know her a little better.
Muffy is married to Gregory, a big-shot software manager/engineer and has three babies: Betsy (18), Annie (14), and Hunter (11). She has been at the writing game, in many forms, for many years. She has written essays, comedy, social satire, political satire, speeches, one-act plays, poetry, PBS doo-dads, Disney Channel stuff, you name it. She publishes a zine, “Withered Debutante," and is the former editor of the online satire zine, “Fresno Lampoon." She was a straight-up newspaper reporter for years, but is now focusing on fiction, essays, and screenplay writing. In 2004, she spent a month in Romania making a film called “Madhouse" that was released theatrically throughout Europe last fall and here on DVD just recently. She has several more on deck at various stages of research, writing, casting, and production—including one that could be classified as old school Disney called “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena."
Muffy was born in Rochester, New York, and is “Part Sicilian, part Philipino, part Irish, part English, part literary snob, and part carny trash." She was raised in Fresno, California—a place which turns up frequently in her work. One day during her Junior year of high school, Muffy was driving to school and just decided that she no longer wished to attend. She drove to the library instead, and just started at one end and worked her way through. ...(Read more)
Setting the Stage: A Review of Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts
Published in 2005 on LiteraryMama.comAlthough I had always considered myself a creative person, it was motherhood that gave me focus and helped me to find my voice. After emerging from the haze that is early motherhood--sleepless nights, dirty diapers, and the like--I have found myself increasingly interested in the creative process, and specifically how busy mamas like myself find the time to do what they do. Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts provides an answer to this question and more...(Read more)
Synchro-mama
Published July/August 2004 in Clamor MagazineWhen I became pregnant in September of 2001, I officially stopped lurking on the Hipmama.com discussion boards (the online companion to Ariel Gore’s zine Hip Mama) and became a member. I had heard about the zine through a friend in town and found the website after ordering a subscription for my sister. I knew that if and when I became a mama, I wanted to be a hip one...(Read more)
Machinery I Have Loved
Published in 2003 on Imperfect ParentThe Medela Pump in Style (PIS) is the second* piece of machinery that I have actually kissed after using it for the first time. I had used a manual Avent Isis pump a few times in the first few months, but always found it taxing. The Isis saved me when my milk came in and I thought my breasts were going to explode with a big, milky bang. It also helped to perk up my less than perky right nipple so that my son could latch on, but it fell short when it came to collecting massive amounts of milk. For me, the Isis combined with surfing the Internet was a Carpal Tunnel cocktail I couldn’t swallow...(Read more)
