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Books centering mothers are often lumped into one category by the publishing industry, flattening the nuanced and varied experiences of this group into a one-size-fits-all niche. A memoirist asks the industry to do better.
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including The Figure Going Imaginary by Marianne Boruch and Marginlands: A Journey Into India’s Vanishing Landscapes by Arati Kumar-Rao.
An excerpt from Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create by Elissa Altman, a compassionate, inspiring literary guide to transcend the fear and shame that can too often keep important stories from being written.
Write a poem that uses the metaphor of a bridge to represent a complex family dynamic, a short story that reconceptualizes historical fiction, or a lyrical essay that reflects on the stages of returning to a former self.
The La Baldi Residency, sponsored by Cultivate, offers two-week and one-month residencies from April through October to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators, in Montegiovi, Italy. Residents are provided with private lodging in apartments, a house, or a palazzo with a fully equipped kitchen and outdoor sitting area. Individual writers and collaborative teams may apply.
La Baldi Residency, 15504 Moravia Court, Derwood, MD 20855. Susan Main, Cultivate Director.
The 2025 Iceland Writers Retreat was from April 23 to April 27 at the Fosshotel in Reykjavík. The retreat features workshops, panels, lectures, receptions, and time to write for fiction and nonfiction writers, as well as literary tours of Iceland. The faculty included fiction writers Kevin Chong, Pedro Gunnlaugur Garcia, Meng Jin, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Curtis Sittenfeld; fiction and nonfiction writers Jann Arden, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Helen Macdonald, and Danny Ramadan; and nonfiction writers Thordis Elva and Rick Jervis. The cost of the retreat was 310,000 ISK (approximately $2,202).
Iceland Writers Retreat, P.O. Box 76, 212 Gardabaer, Iceland. Erica Jacobs Green and Eliza Reid, Cofounders.
Squam Writes offered a retreat from June 5 to June 8 to fiction and creative nonfiction writers at Rockywold Deephaven Camps, a historic resort campsite on the shores of Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. Residents were provided lodging in cottages, cabins, and lodge rooms along the shores of the lake; time to write; and the opportunity to join optional craft-focused workshops led by the codirectors as well as optional peer critique groups. Professional feedback on your writing was available for an additional $75. The faculty included novelists Jilly Gagnon and Melissa Hed.
Squam Writes Retreat, 18 Bacon Road, Holderness, NH 03245. Jilly Gagnon and Melissa Hed, Codirectors.
