This Mama Is Lit!

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...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Brianna Avenia-Tapper chat with Aileen Weitraub, author of Knocked Down: A High Risk Memoir , about the sacrifice of motherhood, interfaith marriage, and the gifts of grief. Grieving the loss of her father while on bedrest has Aileen poking at the notion of how the boy becomes a man when he loses a father. But what about the girl? What does she become? Aileen Weintraub is...

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Amanda Fields chat with Nancy Johnson, author of People of Means , about ancestral pride, Black excellence and social reckoning in each and every moment in time. They explore the notion of how nothing has changed, yet so much has in a short period of time. Ultimately, Nancy writes to open the dialogue on race and welcome complicated conversations about the racial divide in...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Sarah Sawyer, author of The Undercurrent, about power in girlhood, mystical physicality in motherhood and secrets unravelled. Sarah also leaves us with a wise warning from her own mother: beware of life events that involve women throwing parties. Sarah Sawyer's debut novel was touted by Gillian Flynn as "A mystery of remarkable scope, bristling with intelli...

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, a poet, essayist, and translator, works tirelessly to break down language and thoughtfully craft it to match the human condition. She is author of three books of poetry: Something About Living (UAkron, 2024) , winner of the 2024 National Book Award and winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry, Kaan & Her Sisters (Trio House Press), finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award and...

Ava Chin is the author of Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming (Penguin Press, 2023) where she shatters the silence that The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 imposed on the disenfranchised Chinese immigrant community. Her extensive research paired with her rich library of oral histories passed down through familial generations were woven together to create an Ame...

Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana - the tragedies of Katrina and the climate crisis run deep for her and pour onto her pages. Her most recent book is a collection of poetry Mother Water Ash (Louisiana University Press, July 2024) that explores the aftermath of sudden death and the feelings of loss we collectively experience with the endless ecological catastrophes. A prolific poet, N...

Molly Spencer is an award-winning poet, critic, editor, and writing instructor at University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Her debut collection, If the House (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019) won the 2019 Brittingham Prize judged by Carl Phillips. A second collection, Hinge (SIU Press, 2020), a finalist for the National Poetry Series, won the 2019 Crab Orchard Open Comp...

Eva Langston and Amanda Fields chat with Nancy Reddy, author of The Good Mother Myth, about how flawed social science presumptions have blurred our visions of motherhood and trusting our intuition. Author Website: https://www.nancyreddy.com/ Substack: https://nancyreddy.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancy.o.reddy/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancy.reddy.1 Preorder The G...