At twenty-seven years old, Robin Silbergleid decided to become a single mother. Not as a backup or “Plan B,” but as a first choice. In her memoir Texas Girl, she raises fundamental questions about the nature of family and maternity at the turn of the twenty-first century. At a moment when SMCs grace the covers of magazines and Hollywood films, Texas Girl adds the perspective of someone who boldly side-steps the social expectation for a woman to take a life-partner before she has a child. Beginning with a metaphorical conception, Texas Girl charts a long four-year journey, including infertility, miscarriage, and high-risk pregnancy, traveling from Indiana to Texas and back to the snowy north. In this compelling coming-of-age narrative, Silbergleid explores the notion of the chosen family, as close female friends provide perspective, support, and comic relief along the way. A must-read for anyone contemplating single motherhood, this bitingly honest memoir will resonate with anyone concerned with the vital feminist issue of what reproductive choice really means and the obstacles we face in pursuit of it.

Delves into the rhetorical work of elective single mothers (ESMs) in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries as they sought--and continue to seek--to legitimize their maternal identities and family formations Scholars of rhetoric have largely overlooked the inherent rhetoricity of family. In The Case for Single Motherhood, Katherine Mack posits family as a central concern of rhetorical studies by reflecting on how language is used by single mothers who seek to reenvision the personal, social, and political meanings of family. Drawing on intersectional and rhetorical theories, Mack demonstrates how the category of elective single motherhood emerged in response to the historically differential treatment of "unwed mothers" along racial and class lines. Through her readings of a range of self-sponsored ESM texts--guidebooks, memoirs, and interactive digital media written by and primarily for other ESMs--and from her perspective as an elective single mother herself, Mack evaluates the rhetorical power, as well as the exclusions and hierarchies, that the ESM label effects. She analyzes how ESMs envision motherhood, visions that entail their musings about who can and should mother. Ultimately, Mack offers women who are considering nonnormative paths to motherhood a way to affirm their maternal identities and paths without disparaging others'. Scholars in the fields of rhetoric and feminist rhetorical studies will find in this volume an illuminating perspective on the rhetorical power of self-sponsored texts in particular. Crafting a methodology to identify and evaluate the goals and effects of legitimacy work and selecting sources that bring academic attention to varied genres of self-sponsored writings, Mack paves the way for future rhetorical studies of motherhood and family.

What’s Cooking, Mom? offers original and inventive narratives, including auto-ethno- graphic discussions of representations, discourses and practices about and by mothers regarding food and families. These narratives discuss the multiple strategies through which mothers manage feeding themselves and others, and how these are shaped by international and regional food politics, by global and local food cultures and by their own ethical values and preference, as well as by those of the ones they feed.

Whereas biomedical and feminist literature treat abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth as differently conceptualized events, this collection explores the connections between these three categories. How have feminist debates and strategies around reproductive choice invigorated the cultural conversation about miscarriage and stillbirth? How can we imagine more nuanced engagements with the spectrum of experiences that are at stake when a pregnancy ends? And how can we effectively create a space where pregnant people contend with the ways that loss makes meaning for those who grieve and/or celebrate the end of pregnancy? This collection centres pregnancy loss as an embodied and social phenomenon within a framework that understands pregnancy as a process with no guaranteed outcomes. Interrogating Pregnancy Loss considers pregnancy as an epistemic source, one that has the capacity to reveal the limits of our collective assumptions about temporality, expectation, narrative, and social legitimacy. By interrogating loss, this collection argues that the lessons learned from loss have the capacity to serve our collective understandings of both the expected and unexpected rhythms of social and reproductive life.

Breasts are integral to mothers' bodies; over the life course, they can swell, droop, be judged, be aroused, lactate, be altered, be removed. A woman's own breasts may be foremost in her mind during some life events, only to recede into the background at other times. Breasts are complex; they are enveloped by larger cultural meanings that go far beyond their mammary gland function, and we cannot fully understand breasts without examining the myriad discourses surrounding them. Social policies, cultural norms, and interpersonal interactions all help construct localized breast discourses which, in turn, shape mothers' breast experiences. Through examining commonalities and differences over the lifespan, we can see that women's breast experiences inform us about the social conditions in which women live their lives.

Have you ever had something you wanted to say to a friend, but couldn’t? Ever wished you could go back in time to say something you didn’t? Female friendships are some of the most powerful and beautiful relationships in our lives, but it can sometimes be hard to express our true sentiments to these friends. Whether it be pride, fear, feelings, or circumstance that stand in the way, each of us likely has something we wish we could say to someone, but haven’t. In P.S., Megan McMorris collects these sentiments, as an anthology of unsent letters written by a range of women. For the friend who’s been there for you through everything, the friend you’ve lost touch with, or the friend you’ve wished you could help, P.S. offers a chance to express the unspoken. A thought-provoking collection, P.S. is sure to resonate with women readers of all ages, from different walks of life.

Fresh perspectives and eye-opening discussions of contemporary American fiction In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a focused and in-depth collection of essays on some of the most significant and influential authors and literary subjects of the last four decades. Cutting-edge entries from established and new voices discuss subjects as varied as multiculturalism, contemporary regionalisms, realism after poststructuralism, indigenous narratives, globalism, and big data in the context of American fiction from the last 40 years. The Encyclopedia provides an overview of American fiction at the turn of the millennium as well as a vision of what may come. It perfectly balances analysis, summary, and critique for an illuminating treatment of the subject matter. This collection also includes: An exciting mix of established and emerging contributors from around the world discussing central and cutting-edge topics in American fiction studies Focused, critical explorations of authors and subjects of critical importance to American fiction Topics that reflect the energies and tendencies of contemporary American fiction from the forty years between 1980 and 2020 The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020 is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students of American literature, English, creative writing, and fiction studies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars seeking an authoritative array of contributions on both established and newer authors of contemporary fiction.

This collection of essays offers twelve innovative approaches to contemporary literary criticism. The contributors, women scholars who range from undergraduate students to contingent faculty to endowed chairs, stage a critical dialogue that raises vital questions about the aims and forms of criticism— its discourses and politics, as well as the personal, institutional, and economic conditions of its production. Offering compelling feminist and queer readings of avant-garde twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts, the essays included here are playful, performative, and theoretically savvy. Written for students, scholars, and professors in literature and creative writing, Reading and Writing Experimental Texts provides examples for doing literary scholarship in innovative ways. These provocative readings invite conversation and community, reminding us that if the stakes of critical innovation are high, so are the pleasures.

Whether readers come to this book as someone personally affected by infertility or someone who wants to learn more about the experiences of individuals facing reproductive loss, Infertilities, A Curation invites readers to consider how creative practices such as art and writing can aid in efforts to heal individual traumas and more broadly as means of advocacy.

Parents of LGBT Children. Looking for LGBTQ books that offer guidance on providing loving support to your LGBT child? Parents of LGBT children guide: Unconditional: A Guide to Loving and Supporting Your LGBTQ Child"provides parents of a LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning) child with a framework for helping their LGBTQ child navigate through a world that isn’t always welcoming. Author Telaina Eriksen, a professor at Michigan State University and the mother of a gay daughter, explains what she and her husband have learned through experience, including how to: • Deal with gay children coming out • Confront bullying of gay children • Become an advocate for gay children • Build a support system in a gay family Gender and sexuality: Eriksen also covers the science on gender and sexuality and how to help a transgender child through the various stages of development. Throughout the book parents and kids who have been there, share their stories. She also directs gay family parents to various resources online to help them. LGBTQ parents will learn… • How to help their child navigate locker rooms, sleepovers, proms, etc. • When to involve the police or school administration when it comes to bullying • How to advocate for local, state and national policies that protect your child • Ways to educate well-meaning, but misguided extended family members • How to help start a Gay-Straight Alliance at your child’s school • Strategies for keeping your child talking after he or she comes out • Signs of unhealthy relationships • When to consider therapy for your child and/or your family • How to find an LGBTQ-friendly community (including inclusive churches)