Our Writers
Introducing the MotherVerse Blog Writers…
Meet the many great moms who regularly “mother out loud” with MotherVerse.
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Blogger: Judith
Category: Scribblings in Crayon
Although born in German to German parents, Judith Kuegler Webster grew up among tribal communities in Nepal and Indonesia. Fueled by the rich color and texture of the jungle landscape, her interest in creating art was born at an early age. To this day, her art reflects her life in the jungle.
At age 18, Judith made the bold move from village life in New Guinea to Cardiff, Wales. There she completed two A levels. In 1991, Judith enrolled in art college in Hamburg, Germany. She moved to the US in 1994 to continue her studies in art and psychology. It was there that she met and married her husband. In 2002, her first son was born and life began anew.
“Giving birth has been the single most life-altering event of my life. Not only has it changed me; it has made me a better human being. I have learned to trust my body and to surrender to its timing. Together with my husband and my wonderful doula, I was plunged into the awesome arms of labor, never to find my way back. When my first son was born and I looked into his little face for the first time I realized that my heart no longer belonged to me but it had split in two, the one half never to be returned. Foolishly I worried when my second son was born my heart might not be big enough to love him as fully as my first-born. But a miracle happened. My heart expanded and when my second son was born, my heart was able to give just as much. Being a mother is a blessing from Heaven and an honor that I do not take lightly. I am grateful everyday that I have been given the chance to experience motherhood.
As an artist, painting scenes from my everyday life comes naturally to me. It is what I do best. The urge to create has been with me as far back as I can remember. It has shaped who I am and colored the way I see the world. Painting is my way of communicating and reconnecting with what is important to me. With my recent work I would like to express what motherhood means to me, to share my view of what I believe a mother is.”
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. –William Faulkner
“My wish for those who view my work is that they may enjoy its life.”
Blogger: Juliherman
Category: Living With Kids
Juli Herman was born and raised in Malaysia. She came to the United States as a student, and attained her bachelor’s in Computer Science from Iowa State University. When she’s not writing, she’s baking. When she’s not baking, she’s writing. When she’s doing either one, she also homeschools her four children. Just to stress herself out, she participates in various projects in the community. She’s a workaholic, and loving it.
Blogger: Krisunderwood
Category: Writing Amidst the Chaos
Kris is a mother and writer. She writes to keep everything going. Eventually, hopefully next spring, she would like to get a somewhat sustainable garden started. Some of her writing can be found at The Whole Mom, Mom Writers Literary Magazine and in issues of MotherVerse as well. She also blogs at Writing In The Mountains.
Blogger: libertebella
Category: Maternal Instinct
LiberteBella is a 76 year old mother of three grown children and the grandmother of one grown granddaughter. She was a child during world war II and has some stories to share.
Blogger: Lilian Sarlos
Category: Notes From the Slow Lane
Lilian is a mother, teacher and writer in Portland Oregon. She lives with her husband, two children, two dogs, a cat, four chickens and a snake in an old bungalow. She finds writing and practicing yoga almost keep her grounded. She is interested in how to live and teach sustainability.
Blogger: Katherine Barrett
Katherine Barrett an at-home mother of twin toddlers and a preschooler - all boys, all boisterous and all beautiful. In her infrequent stretches of quiet time she writes, and in a former life she was a dedicated and relatively together academic. Katherine and her family are Canadian but have recently been transplanted to the Western Cape in South Africa. She also blogs at Twin Utero: Germinal Writings on Parenting Multiples.
Blogger: Kelly Pfeiffer-Ennis
“Writer, Photographer, Artist. I became a mother at age 28 and a step-mother at age 43. I live with my newly blended family - my husband, John and four kids, ages 15 (step daughter), 15 (son), 13 (step son) and 12 (daughter) in Greenville, SC.”
Blogger: Leesagehman
Leesa is a single mom who lives with her son (who’s six years old and has gotten to the stage where he’s terribly embarrassed when his mom writes anything about him, even if it is funny), a spastic dog named Betsy and boring cat named Spaz. She’s had nonfiction essays published in several parenting magazines and in the upcoming anthology, “How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel: And Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids”. Her short stories are published under a pseudonym.
Blogger: Maya
Born and brought up in lovely India in the midst of a close-knit family and a reasonably large extended family, living in Singapore now with her husband and her baby makes a world of difference to Maya! Although the little girl she has is going to be 17 months old now, she still feels she’s a brand-new mother and has a lot to explore! Bringing up her baby almost single-handedly, with her husband away at work for more than 14 hours a day, trying to balance her freelance career as a medical writer, squeezing in time for her artistic talents in painting, pottery, and dabbling with music, is quite a challenge. It’s quite a contrast to the setup back in India where there are umpteen number of people to help in taking care of a baby, if not anybody else, at least the baby’s grandparents do!
She quit her clinical research job with a multinational pharma company to take care of her baby full time, to be with her all the time watching her beautiful babyhood and enjoy every minute (or sometimes feel exasperated with all the baby antics)! She thinks it’s a phase that everybody ought to go through:) She loves to share her experiences through her writing, not to forget the famous old aunties’ and grannies’ advice from India on bringing up children!
Blogger: Noelle
“I’m in my late twenties; I have a 3-year-old daughter and a baby due in May. I’m married, in graduate school, and work in publishing. My life is one giant balancing act at which I am successful sometimes and other times, not so much. But it’s always an adventure, and I always learning something about myself.”
Blogger: Melissa Stanton
Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mother of three (a boy and twin girls), Melissa Stanton was a senior editor at People and LIFE magazines. Her book, The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide will be published in June by Seal Press. A New York native, she now lives in a rural suburb outside of Washington D.C.
Blogger: Regina Walker
Regina Walker is a writer and psychotherapist in NYC. She is also mama to two awesome boys. Regina’s work has appeared in Hip Mama, The Mother’s Movement Online, Mamaphonic, Mamazine, The Future Generation, and a bunch of other places she can’t remember now.
Blogger: StephanieS
Stephanie Susnjara is a freelance writer based in Katonah, NY. Her personal essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction; Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers; the anthology, Women Who Eat (Seal Press), and so forth. She has essays forthcoming in Wondertime and Italian Americana. Ms. Susnjara holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College
Blogger: FrogMama
Christina is a thirty-something new mom. She lives in rural Connecticut, where she is a freelance graphic designer and writer. She also blogs at Frogs in my Formula.
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Our Guest Bloggers
–Jennifer James, editor of Mommy Too! Magazine (celebrating mothers of color and the families they love). You can also check her out at the Black Breastfeeding Blog. Jennifer is a homeschooling mother of two daughters and wife to her soul mate, Michael. She has written for Mothering, AOL, Literary Mama, and Home Education magazine and will soon begin blogging about breastfeeding history at Capessa.com, a part of Yahoo! Health. Her blogs are also regularly syndicated on iVillage.com and news sites across the country. She resides in North Carolina.
–Annie Downey currently lives with her son ( her daughter just started her freshman year at college! ), her two kitties and one doggie in Vermont. When she’s not walking the dog, cleaning up poop, working as a careprovider for the VNA, or racing off to pick her son up from school (ah!) she’s hard at work on her second novel and a collection of personal essays. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, UTNE Reader and Hip Mama Magazine. She has also been a guest commentator on NPR and VPR. Her debut novel, “Hot and Bothered” is now in bookstores nationwide or available on the web through Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.
–Shana Clauson “The basics about me: I’m a mom to 4, a wife and partner to my husband, a student, an amateur photographer, and a breastfeeding advocate. I have a sarcastic sense of humor that is sometimes not appreciated or understood by others, but I just like to laugh. Laughter is the best medicine for the soul.” You can view her photography on her Flickr site.
–Suzanne Kamata is an American living in Japan with her Japanese husband and twins. Her regular blog, Gaijin Mama, details her life in rural Japan. Her stories, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in a large variety of publications including Literary Mama, Brain, Child, MotherVerse, New York Stories, and the anthology It’s a Boy! Suzanne is a five-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and she has twice won the Nippon Airways Fiction Contest. She recently published the novel Losing Kei.
–Shannon Hyland-Tassava is a psychologist, writer, and full-time at-home mom to two daughters, ages 1 and 3. She lives in southern Minnesota with her family and blogs at Mama in Wonderland.
–Izzy “I’m a work-at-home mother of two who resides, reluctantly, in Florida. I hope to someday live somewhere more progressive but until then I continue to bide my time by searching locally for intelligent life, buttwiping, carpooling and thinking of ways to get out of cooking dinner for my very patient and understanding family. My turn-ons include kingsize beds, room-darkening shades and white noise machines. I am the founder of Moms Speak Up and founder/editor of Props and Pans, as well as a graphic designer who moonlights designing blogs to help support my Target habit. I can also be found at my personal blog, IzzyMom.com.”
–Katy Farber is a teacher, freelance writer, activist and mom to two spirited little girls. She writes about environmental health issues for families at http://www.non-toxickids.net.
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Previous Regular Bloggers
Blogger: Carol Graser
Category: The Wild Twist of Their Stems
Carol is in her 22nd year of parenting and has done the homebirth, extended nursing, family bed, homeschool bit with many permutations. She and he husband survived the infant death of their second born son. They’ve dealt with layoffs, relocations and PTSD. Her oldest, after being unschooled entirely, has just graduated from Emerson college with a degree in film. He’s currently in LA working for Warner Brothers in a new, innovative, YouTube-inspired project to write and act with other recent college grads in short comedic videos. Her daughter is 16, her youngest boy 10, both of whom they continue to unschool.After many years of being published in many literary, local and parenting magazines, her first manuscript of poetry, The Wild Twist of Their Stems, has just been published by Foothills Publishing. This work is inspired and informed by the many mothers she’s spent afternoons with, talking about and observing the incredible strength and creativity it takes to remain allies to our children. The poems are somewhat ecphrastic; attempts to describe the absolute artistry of raising children well. Carol also runs a poetry night once a month at the great, legendary venue, Caffe Lena. This wonderful stage experience has given her the opportunity to perform her poetry at all kinds of poetry and community events.
Blogger- Desi
Category- Teen Tango
Desire` lives in Sandpoint. She currently attends NIC/LCSC, and has a column in the college newspaper, The Sentinel. She has been published in various magazines and on-line sites. Her favorite sport is riding her Pinto Splash into the hills with her faithful dog, Cholo in attendance. She has two teen-age children who are her sunshine and joy.
