This Mama Is Lit!

Amanda and Eva chat with Domenica Ruta, author of All the Mothers, about a new dialectic in motherhood, the specific anxieties of single moms, and the necessity of single mom communities. She also explores the trials of the family court system and the realities of what those minefields can mean for single moms. Domenica’s latest book, All the Mothers , is a novel that follows three single mothers...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Jessie Harrold, author of Mothershift , about matrescence - the process of becoming a mother, the four radical transformations, and the seven mother powers. Jessie explains how mothers can be agents of change, and how modern mothers in crisis can step into their innate powers to reclaim themselves. Mothershift is the first book of its kind to dive deeply in...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Eva Langston chat with Liz Alterman, author of Sad Sacked , about the perils and freedoms of unemployment, the dichotomy of working moms, and the need to write the book you want to read. Diving deep into her own family’s dual layoffs, Liz’s memoir uses humor as a healing force as she details the downsizing and uploading of life’s losses and wins. Liz Alterman is the author...

Amanda Fields and Eva Langston chat with Jessica Slice, author of Unfit Parent , about designing and inventing systems of parenting based on the bodies and minds we live in. Unfit Parent examines the obstacles that disabled parents face, the societal beliefs that undergird those barriers, and the political and economic systems that hold it all in place. Jessica explores how disability culture and...

Eva Langston and Holly Rizzuto Palker chat with Natasha Williams, author of The Parts of Him I Kept , about parenting her father through schizophrenia and healing through memoir writing. The Parts of Him I Kept is an intimate account of a daughter’s coming of age in the face of her father’s schizophrenic unraveling. Williams investigates the limits of our medical and cultural understanding of schi...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Amanda Fields chat with Abigail Leonard, author of Four Mothers , about parenting in four different countries, politicizing motherhood, and supporting mothers with the power of community. Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Abigail interweaves stories of four mothers from four different countries with a critically researched exploration of how parental...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Allison Buccola, author of The Ascent , about the anxieties of new motherhood, renegotiating relationships post-childbirth, and navigating career transitions. Allison’s most recent novel explores an unsolved mystery of a reclusive commune twenty years prior. The only known survivor, Lee, has tried to put the pain of her past behind her, building a new ident...

Amanda Fields and Eva Langston chat with Monique Clesca, author of Silence and Resistance: Memoir of a Girlhood in Haiti , about reckoning with family secrets, healing, and fighting for Haitian children’s rights. Monique Clesca is an activist, journalist, and advocate for children’s and women’s rights, participating in high-level policy issues in Haiti and Africa and offering holistic support to g...

Amanda Fields, Brianna Avenia-Tapper, Holly Rizzuto Palker, and Eva Langston come together to reflect on the evolution of this podcast, memorable guests, and the conversations we can’t wait to have. From their very first attempts at recording to latest and greatest moments, they take time to reflect, celebrate and appreciate all the authors they have featured in addition to what they have learned...

For our 50th episode, Holly Rizzuto Palker and Amanda Fields chat with Maggie Smith, author of Dear Writer , about applying poetic license to writing and beyond, embracing the beginner’s mind, and aging in reverse through creativity. Smith’s national bestseller guides the reader on how to unleash the creative mind with ten ingredients, each one explored through inspirational essays and writing pro...

Amanda Fields and Eva Langston chat with Jessica Guerrieri, author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea , about motherhood drinking culture, the power of family and friendship, and addiction. Jessica's debut novel offers an honest rebuttal to the prevalence of alcohol in "mom life" and the fragility of family ties. Originally from the Bay Area, Jessica Guerrieri lives in Davis, California, w...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Amanda Fields chat with Catalina Margulis, author of Again, Only More Like You , about a reckoning of journalism, ideas of what a "good mother" is, and hard-kept female friendships. For fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner, Again, Only More Like You offers a poignant and humorous look at friendship and reinvention at 40. Catalina is an author, podcast host and moth...

Eva Langston and Holly Rizzuto Palker chat with Penny Zang, author of Doll Parts , about writing through grief, the “rights and wrongs” of motherhood, and finding inspiration in Sylvia Plath. For readers of The Virgin Suicides and I Have Some Questions For You, Doll Parts is a dual timeline suspense novel following one woman as she begins to uncover the truth of the death of her estranged best fri...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Ellen Wiles about her second novel, The Unexpected , published in November 2024 by HarperCollins. It follows two best friends, Robin and Kessie, who find themselves platonically coparenting a baby. It's a book about different species of love, including friendship and kinship, about motherhood and fertility, and about unconventional and queer families. Ellen...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Emma Pattee, author of Tilt , about parsing capitalism and creative pursuits, powering large-scale climate activism, and questioning how to love something you know will die. Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and fiction writer living in Portland, Oregon. She has written about climate change for The Atlantic , The New York Times, The Washington Post, and T...

Amanda Fields and Eva Langston talk with Jill Dopf Viles, the author of Manufacturing My Miracle: One Woman’s Journey To Acquire Her Personalized Gene Therapy . Jill writes about her experiences with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy. These experiences are placed in the hands of a deft and lyrical writer who often surprises the reader with unforgettable images and memories even as she works throug...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Kathleen Glasgow, author of The Glass Girl , about her distinct writing process, being a "sad book" author, and writing YA novels about addiction, grief and other tough topics. Kathleen Glasgow started as a poet and somehow found herself writing novels. She's the author of the New York Times and internationally bestselling YA novels Girl in Pieces, The Glas...

Eva Langston and Holly Rizzuto Palker chat with Lish McBride, author of quirky books for teens and adults, about writing in different genres, navigating the publishing industry, and weaving humor through daily life. Lish McBride is a prolific writer of Young Adult and Adult books that often contain humor and magic. Her latest adult novel, The Suitcase Swap , is a love story born out of a JFK Airpo...

Alicia Elliott's debut novel, And Then She Fell , explores how motherhood and mental health collide as an Indigenous young woman confronts her inherited trauma and looks to her own creation story to find her power. Alicia is a Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. Her short fiction was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2018 , Best Canadian Stories 2018 , and The Journey...

Amanda Fields and Holly Rizzuto Palker chat with Amanda K. Jaros, author of Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology, about mothering and stepmothering, running a motherhood magazine, and finding support in writing communities. Amanda is a writer and editor living in Ithaca, NY. Her writing passion began with personal journals and short stories as a child, which morphed into a series of momm...

Eva Langton and Amanda Fields chat with Nikkya Hargrove, author of Mama: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found, about raising her half sibling as her child and navigating the family court and prison systems. Nikkya Hargrove's powerful memoir Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found follows her journey as she makes the decision to raise her third half sibling, J...

Eva Langston, Holly Rizzuto Palker + Amanda Fields chat with Sandra Chwialkowska, author of The Ends of Things, about screenwriting versus novel-writing + surviving a book launch with a newborn baby. Sandra Chwialkowska is a television producer and writer whose first novel, The Ends of Things , is a psychological suspense that explores female friendship and agency, and pushes back against the trop...

Amanda Fields and Holly Rizzuto Palker speak with Susan Kiyo Ito, author of I Would Meet You Anywhere , about adoption, the complexities of meeting one's birth mother, and reproductive freedom. Seeking her birth mother and fighting for reproductive rights inspires Susan to find the power of support in community and answers through her writing. A finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle A...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Eva Langston speak with Judith Smith, author of Difficult: Mothering Challenging Adult Children Through Conflict and Change , about mothering challenging adult children, and how to find solutions through acceptance and no assignment of fault. Becoming an adult is not nearly as clear today as it was 50 years ago. Major structural changes are needed for mothers not to blame...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Eva Langston chat with Rachelle Bergstein, author of The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us, about why Blume, once the most banned writer in the United States is more relevant now than ever. Judy Blume's ability to reflect real life parenting, puberty and precocious kids built a trust with her adolescent readers and provided a solid training gro...