THIS BOOK IS FOR BUSY MUMS.
Entwined: an Anthology of Creativity & Motherhood
A collaborative anthology and art journal to kindle creativity in motherhood. Edited by Sarah Shotts
A few months ago, I was in receipt of an email invitation where my name had been mentioned in a literary network as someone to approach as a creative BIPOC mother who might be interested in writing a short piece for an anthology on creativity and motherhood.
I had just spent the best part of 2023 writing my hybrid essay for The Mother Wave: Theorizing, Enacting, and Representing Matricentric Feminism. Edited by Andrea O'Reilly and Fiona Joy Green ( more to follow about that), which was exploring how Black mothers are not included in the terms ‘mothers’, ‘mothering’ and ‘motherhood’, so I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to get out voices heard in an anthology which would be predominately white.
From the original call out from the publisher Sarah Shotts there’d been a great response from creatives who were mothers but the diversity of responses was missing.
Sarah was open and transparent from the get go and wanted to include thr voices and experienced of mothers of colour in this creative anthology but the submissions were just not coming her way after multiple call outs and promises of submissions but nothing forthcoming.
Now I’m not going to get into the reasoning of this but I could come up with a few reasons for this lack of submissions and contributions from mothers of colour. For me, sometimes I see these call outs and my first reaction or impression is this is not for me. My creations would not be welcome to such publications, feeling that my voice wouldn’t be recognised as a voice worth listening to. Also from experience, I know that when I have submitted my work it hasn’t been understood. It’s been questioned and altered because the editor or publisher is still a white person who operates within a strict structure of what they judge to be poetry or prose or art.
There are so many things to consider and understand if you are a white editor or publisher trying to diversify your collections and anthologies than just making the call out for submissions and then thinking that this is enough in itself. And then wondering why you’re not getting the diversity of voices you’re seeking? Or seeing the endeavour to diversify just as a ticky box crusade without doing the internal work on yourself.
Entwined is an anthology that weaves together stories of creativity and motherhood. This is a grassroots project including 55 mothers who are painters, writers, potters, visual artists, musicians, poets, and multipassionates. The purpose of this project is to inspire mothers to pursue creativity in their own way.
Ember is an art journal companion. A variety of creative prompts (writing, observation, ideating, dreaming, and making) curated to help mothers to kindle their creative sparks.
You can support the project by preordering, donating a copy, or sharing on social media.
My writing is included in this anthology of creativity and motherhood. I hope I’m not the only creative of the global majority included. And it I am then I better continue on that crusade of getting Black mothers recognised as mothers and radical creatives and beautiful flawed human beings full stop.