A Cup of Comfort® for Mothers:

Stories that celebrate the women who gave us everything

While it's true that each of us has "only one mother the wide world over," there are many different ways to be a mother and many different forms and flavors of mother-child relationships. And in this Cup of Comfort anthology we want to capture it all—with personal stories about a wide range of mothering and mother-child experiences, including those that test your mettle as well as those that enrich your life. The book will include stories written both by mothers and about mothers (by their adult children, spouse, own mother). Any topic and tone goes, as long as it’s meaningful to mothers and suitable for Cup of Comfort. Whether a story is endearing or entertaining, inspiring or insightful, humorous or heartwarming, poignant or empowering, or all of the above, it must be uplifting and authentic. And most should be about living mothers/children. Although a story may be about a deceased mother (or a deceased child, if written by the mother), it should focus on her life, not on her death. Narrative essays preferred. Story length: 1000–2000 words.

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2009 Submit Your Story Now
Finalist Notification: June 1, 2009

Wisdom of Our Mothers

Familia Books

Statement of aims and general information:

This website's aim is to gather stories about what we have learned from our mothers, how we feel about it, and how it affects the way we live our lives. These stories will be collected into a book, tentatively titled Wisdom of Our Mothers. Fifty percent of the profits from the book will be donated to shelters for mothers and their children escaping from abusive relationships.

If your work is accepted, you will be paid $100 per story upon publication of the book. (See FAQs for other payment options.)

To contribute your story, click "Send Story"

To read sample stories, click "Read Stories."

ON MOTHERHOOD

Our mothers were our first teachers. The lessons we learned were different, but for nearly all of us, they had a profound impact, laying the foundation for our feelings, values, self-image, and personalities.

This is not to idealize motherhood. We were taught by human beings, and the lessons carried with them all the flaws of which humans are capable. Sometimes they brought distress, resentments, and estrangement, as well as wisdom.

But they came from what is the most demanding task which most humans could ever face: bringing into this world another human being, nurturing, caring for that life, for as long as the mother or child lives.

No one can ever define fully what this means either to mothers or their children, but we can contribute to this site our experiences to flesh out what maternal wisdom means to us. And when, in a few months, we have gathered enough stories, we can share our experiences through the completed anthology, Wisdom of Our Mothers.

Story guidelines: Maximum length is 3,000 words (no minimum). Stories will be true accounts of life’s lessons learned from one’s mother, regarding values, ethics, relationships. They should be generally positive, but may explore areas of disagreement or conflict with one’s mother.

How to submit your story: You may submit your stories by s-mail or e-mail. Click “Contact” for details.

Include with submission: Contact information: your name, address, phone number, and email address.

Deadline: November 30, 2008 (tentative)