Mothering, Community and Friendship

Motherhood is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks faced by human beings ? without formal training, without explicit guidelines, without a map. As explored in this collection, motherhood is made viable, sustainable, and joyous when mothers find solace, support, and solidarity through friendship and community, near and far, formal and informal. In fact, it is friendship and community that makes us stronger, less alone, and open to the universalities of motherhood while being fully cognizant of the disparities and differences. My greatest wish is that this message reaches all mothers, everywhere. We need each other. Together, we are stronger.

- Michelann Parr is professor in the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University and co-editor of Writing Mothers: Narrative Acts of Care, Redemption, and Transformation.

This book is a welcome, and absolutely, enjoyable Read! Through prose and poetry, the book tells stories of mothers, mothering, motherhood and community and transports the reader through, between and among the realms of the arduous journeys of mothering.
The book situates mothering work within socio-politically fraught contexts and takes the reader through the beautiful, challenging, traumatic, inspiring and transcendental experiences of mothers and mothering. Together, this eclectic collection of stories and voices open-up spaces of being, questioning and solidarity in ways that allow the reader to appreciate the world of mothers from across different planes and realms. As an ?academic mama?, I enjoyed the intimacy of the stories shared; and especially the reminder of timeless traditions carried out sometimes without the support of the proverbial village in our globally interconnected -if also profoundly lonely world-. The book will appeal to varied audiences who will come to it, engage and leave it, from (and at) different entry points.

- Dr. Sylvia Bawa, Associate Professor of Sociology at York University