Riding Shotgun
Women Write About Their Mothers
Edited by Kathryn Kysar
The Authors:
Jonis Agee is the author of five novels — Sweet Eyes, Strange Angels, South of Resurrection, The Weight of Dreams, and The River Wife — and five collections of short fiction — Pretend We've Never Met, Bend This Heart, A .38 Special and a Broken Heart, Taking the Wall, and Acts of Love on Indigo Road. She is Adele Hall Professor of English at The University of Nebraska -Lincoln.
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate, Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir, and On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness, a collection of personal essays. She offers writing instruction and spiritual direction in Minneapolis.
Sandra Benítez is the acclaimed author of the novels A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Bitter Grounds, The Weight of All Things, and Night of the Radishes. Benítez was a recipient of the National Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature. Benítez's latest book is bag lady: A Memoir. The Triumphant True Story of Loss, Illness and Recovery.
Barrie Jean Borich is the author of My Lesbian Husband, an American Library Association GLBT nonfiction book award winner, and Restoring the Color of Roses. Her essay in this volume is from work-in-progress entitled Body Geographic. Her awards include a Bush Artist Fellowship and Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Hamline University.
Taiyon Coleman’s work has appeared in Ethos, Knotgrass, Sketch, Cave Canem Anthology IV, V, and VII, DrumVoices Revue, Sauti Mpya, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, A View from the Loft and Maverick Magazine #9. A Loft Mentor Series winner and a member of Cave Canem, she teaches English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
Heid E. Erdrich's poetry collections are National Monuments, The Mother's Tongue, and Fishing for Myth. She co-edited Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community. A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibway, she was raised in Wahpeton, North Dakota. She teaches writing and is curator at Ancient Traders art gallery in Minneapolis.
Diane Glancy is a professor at Macalester College. She is the author of nine novels, five short shory collections, and twelve collections of poetry. Her recent books include Rooms, New and Selected Poems, In-Between Places, essays, and The Dance Partner, Stories of the Ghost Dance, and a collection of poetry, Asylum in the Grasslands.
Jan Zita Grover is the author of two books of essays, North Enough: AIDS and Other Clear-Cuts, which won the Minnesota Book Award for creative nonfiction in 1998, Northern Waters, and Dakota Goes Home, a children's book. "Motherfood" is adapted from a chapter in the book she is writing about food and eating.
Denise Low, 2007-2009 Kansas poet laureate, is Humanities & Arts Dean at Haskell Indian Nations University. Recent books are Words of a Prairie Alchemist, a Kansas Notable Book; Thailand Journal, Kansas City Star Notable Book; and New & Selected Poems, 2nd ed. She is a 5th generation Kansan of mixed German, British, Lenape (Delaware), and Cherokee heritage.
Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including Rainlight, Shadow Baby, Was It Beautiful, and All Rivers Flow to the Sea, as well as books for children of all ages. Her picture book Someday was inspired by her relationship with her mother.
Sheila O'Connor is the author of two novels, Tokens of Grace and Where No Gods Came, winner of the Michigan Literary Award and Minnesota Book Award. She has received fellowships from Bush Foundation, Loft-McKnight, Minnesota State Arts Board. An assistant professor in the GLS program at Hamline University, she also serves as the fiction editor for Water~Stone Review.
Shannon Olson is the author of the novels Welcome to My Planet: Where English Is Sometimes Spoken and Children of God Go Bowling. She has written for The Guardian (London), InStyle, Good Housekeeping, the StarTribune, Minnesota Monthly and The Rake. She is an assistant professor of English at St. Cloud State University.
Carrie Pomeroy's writing has appeared in The Laurel Review, Calyx, Slow Trains, and Literary Mama. Recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, a Henfield Prize, and honorable mention for a Pushcart Prize, she has taught writing at Metropolitan State University and the Loft Literary Center. She lives with her husband and two small children.
Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is a receipent of a James Mitchner Fellowship, a Radcliff Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a Princeton Hodder fellowship. Her first novel, The Grass Dancer, awarded the PEN/Hemingway Prize. Her second book, Roofwalker, was awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize.
Sun Yung Shin is the author of Skirt Full of Black (poems); co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writings on Transracial Adoption; and author of Cooper's Lesson, a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children. A 2007 Bush Artist Fellow for Literature, she is a community activist and is a frequent
speaker on adoption issues.
Faith Sullivan is the author of seven novels: Repent, Lanny Merkel, Watchdog, Mrs. Demming and the Mythical Beast, The Cape Ann, The Empress of One and Gardenias. In addition, she has also published numerous articles, essays, book reviews, and humorous pieces. A winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize in1996, Sullivan lives in Minneapolis with her husband.
Susan Steger Welsh is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship and a SASE/Jerome fellowship. Her first poetry collection, Rafting on the Water Table, was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. She mothers two mostly-grown children from St. Paul, where she lives with her husband and works as a writer.
Anne Ursu is the author of the novels Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James, as well as The Cronus Chronicles, a trilogy for young readers. She has won a Minnesota Book Award, was nominated for Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and was a finalist for Borders Original Voices Program.
Ka Vang was born in Laos and grew up in Minnesota. Her plays, Disconnect, Dead Calling and From Shadows to Light have been performed at venues in Minnesota and New York City. Vang's short story, “Ms. Pac Man Ruined My Gang Life,” was featured in two anthologies: Bamboo Among the Oaks and Charlie Chan is Dead II: At Home in the World.
Wang Ping was born in China and came to USA in 1985. Her books include American Visa, Foreign Devil, Of Flesh and Spirit, The Magic Whip, Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China, and The Last Communist Virgin. She is the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts and Lannan Foundation Fellowship. She is associate professor of English at Macalester College.
Morgan Grayce Willow has received a Loft-McKnight, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, a SASE/Jerome Fellowship, a New York Mills/Jerome Residency for her poetry. Widely published in journals and anthologies, her chapbook is entitled Spinnerets and she is the author of Crossing That Bridge.
Women Write About Their Mothers
Edited by Kathryn Kysar
The Authors:
Jonis Agee is the author of five novels — Sweet Eyes, Strange Angels, South of Resurrection, The Weight of Dreams, and The River Wife — and five collections of short fiction — Pretend We've Never Met, Bend This Heart, A .38 Special and a Broken Heart, Taking the Wall, and Acts of Love on Indigo Road. She is Adele Hall Professor of English at The University of Nebraska -Lincoln.
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate, Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir, and On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness, a collection of personal essays. She offers writing instruction and spiritual direction in Minneapolis.
Sandra Benítez is the acclaimed author of the novels A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Bitter Grounds, The Weight of All Things, and Night of the Radishes. Benítez was a recipient of the National Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature. Benítez's latest book is bag lady: A Memoir. The Triumphant True Story of Loss, Illness and Recovery.
Barrie Jean Borich is the author of My Lesbian Husband, an American Library Association GLBT nonfiction book award winner, and Restoring the Color of Roses. Her essay in this volume is from work-in-progress entitled Body Geographic. Her awards include a Bush Artist Fellowship and Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Hamline University.
Taiyon Coleman’s work has appeared in Ethos, Knotgrass, Sketch, Cave Canem Anthology IV, V, and VII, DrumVoices Revue, Sauti Mpya, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, A View from the Loft and Maverick Magazine #9. A Loft Mentor Series winner and a member of Cave Canem, she teaches English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
Heid E. Erdrich's poetry collections are National Monuments, The Mother's Tongue, and Fishing for Myth. She co-edited Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community. A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibway, she was raised in Wahpeton, North Dakota. She teaches writing and is curator at Ancient Traders art gallery in Minneapolis.
Diane Glancy is a professor at Macalester College. She is the author of nine novels, five short shory collections, and twelve collections of poetry. Her recent books include Rooms, New and Selected Poems, In-Between Places, essays, and The Dance Partner, Stories of the Ghost Dance, and a collection of poetry, Asylum in the Grasslands.
Jan Zita Grover is the author of two books of essays, North Enough: AIDS and Other Clear-Cuts, which won the Minnesota Book Award for creative nonfiction in 1998, Northern Waters, and Dakota Goes Home, a children's book. "Motherfood" is adapted from a chapter in the book she is writing about food and eating.
Denise Low, 2007-2009 Kansas poet laureate, is Humanities & Arts Dean at Haskell Indian Nations University. Recent books are Words of a Prairie Alchemist, a Kansas Notable Book; Thailand Journal, Kansas City Star Notable Book; and New & Selected Poems, 2nd ed. She is a 5th generation Kansan of mixed German, British, Lenape (Delaware), and Cherokee heritage.
Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including Rainlight, Shadow Baby, Was It Beautiful, and All Rivers Flow to the Sea, as well as books for children of all ages. Her picture book Someday was inspired by her relationship with her mother.
Sheila O'Connor is the author of two novels, Tokens of Grace and Where No Gods Came, winner of the Michigan Literary Award and Minnesota Book Award. She has received fellowships from Bush Foundation, Loft-McKnight, Minnesota State Arts Board. An assistant professor in the GLS program at Hamline University, she also serves as the fiction editor for Water~Stone Review.
Shannon Olson is the author of the novels Welcome to My Planet: Where English Is Sometimes Spoken and Children of God Go Bowling. She has written for The Guardian (London), InStyle, Good Housekeeping, the StarTribune, Minnesota Monthly and The Rake. She is an assistant professor of English at St. Cloud State University.
Carrie Pomeroy's writing has appeared in The Laurel Review, Calyx, Slow Trains, and Literary Mama. Recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, a Henfield Prize, and honorable mention for a Pushcart Prize, she has taught writing at Metropolitan State University and the Loft Literary Center. She lives with her husband and two small children.
Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is a receipent of a James Mitchner Fellowship, a Radcliff Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a Princeton Hodder fellowship. Her first novel, The Grass Dancer, awarded the PEN/Hemingway Prize. Her second book, Roofwalker, was awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize.
Sun Yung Shin is the author of Skirt Full of Black (poems); co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writings on Transracial Adoption; and author of Cooper's Lesson, a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children. A 2007 Bush Artist Fellow for Literature, she is a community activist and is a frequent
speaker on adoption issues.
Faith Sullivan is the author of seven novels: Repent, Lanny Merkel, Watchdog, Mrs. Demming and the Mythical Beast, The Cape Ann, The Empress of One and Gardenias. In addition, she has also published numerous articles, essays, book reviews, and humorous pieces. A winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize in1996, Sullivan lives in Minneapolis with her husband.
Susan Steger Welsh is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship and a SASE/Jerome fellowship. Her first poetry collection, Rafting on the Water Table, was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. She mothers two mostly-grown children from St. Paul, where she lives with her husband and works as a writer.
Anne Ursu is the author of the novels Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James, as well as The Cronus Chronicles, a trilogy for young readers. She has won a Minnesota Book Award, was nominated for Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and was a finalist for Borders Original Voices Program.
Ka Vang was born in Laos and grew up in Minnesota. Her plays, Disconnect, Dead Calling and From Shadows to Light have been performed at venues in Minnesota and New York City. Vang's short story, “Ms. Pac Man Ruined My Gang Life,” was featured in two anthologies: Bamboo Among the Oaks and Charlie Chan is Dead II: At Home in the World.
Wang Ping was born in China and came to USA in 1985. Her books include American Visa, Foreign Devil, Of Flesh and Spirit, The Magic Whip, Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China, and The Last Communist Virgin. She is the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts and Lannan Foundation Fellowship. She is associate professor of English at Macalester College.
Morgan Grayce Willow has received a Loft-McKnight, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, a SASE/Jerome Fellowship, a New York Mills/Jerome Residency for her poetry. Widely published in journals and anthologies, her chapbook is entitled Spinnerets and she is the author of Crossing That Bridge.