But just because I’m missing doesn’t mean you have to. Yes, if I weren’t getting married that week, I would be running off to BlogHer 2008 and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. And at the latter, I’d be here: “Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question,” which happens July 13-18, and “Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile” on July 19-20, both taught by Sarah Saffian. For more info on these workshops, click here. For general registration, here.

And for the folks who have recently asked me for advice about MFA programs in creative nonfiction: While I know little about the difference between various programs, I do know that had I not maxed out my savings on a PhD I would be running to go get me one of those. Fellow writer and workshop teacher Elizabeth Merrick, however, knows a lot about these programs and offers counseling and coaching and the like. So I thought I’d point those wondering her way, since unfortunately I can be of little use in this particular respect.

Chill, drink and mingle while raising money to empower and engage young women in the political process. Plus amazing gourmet cupcakes from Eleni’s NY. Does it get much better than that?!

ROCK FOR YOUNG WOMEN
A benefit to support the Younger Women’s Task Force and the Voting Vixens Campaign

Hey, I’m not sure what a “voting vixen” is, but I’m pretty sure I’d like to be one.

Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 8:30pm
Location: Knitting Factory
Street: 74 Leonard Street
City/Town: New York, NY

$15 tickets for sale at knittingfactory.com or at the door. Featuring spoken word, musical performances and dj. Performers include: Mahogany Brown, James Jacobsen, Omni, Bouva, Dream Bitches, Changing Modes and DJ Allyson Toy. Co-Sponsors Include Girls In Government, Young People For, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, GoLeft.org, SAFER: Students Active For Ending Rape.

Check it out:
YWTF.org
myspace.com/ywtf

Also check out the Younger Women’s Task Force facebook group’s event information, and their blog.

There’s a new book out called Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). How much more timely could a book be? Because it asks those nagging questions like, if women have made so much “progress,” why haven’t their lives gotten any easier? Why do most American women say they don’t get enough sleep and that balancing work and family is getting harder? Why do they make 77 cents to a man’s dollar? And why must Maloney still fight to preserve rights—such as educational equality and even birth control—that seemed secure in the 1970s?

Excellent questions, all. Read an excerpt, here.

Praise, from Gloria Steinem: “Carolyn Maloney has given us a factual, lively, life-saving book full of reasons why American women are told we’re already equal — when we’re anything but. She also tells us how to move forward anyway. If you have time for only one book to save your sanity, advance women’s equality, and connect your life to politics in this election year, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated is definitely it.”

And from a making-it-pop perspective, I must say I love the title. Nicely invocative, on some level, of phrases like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and, of course, that Mark Twain quote, Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. Very clever, given the recurring media refrain that feminism is dead.

Thank you, all, for your comments on yesterday’s post about Rebecca and Alice Walker (Mama Drama Take 2), and to all those you emailed me privately to share thoughts. I’m again subverting the post/comment convention to share some highlights because, as always, you GWP readers have so much insight to share:

Gloria Feldt: “I would have found Rebecca’s article amusing if it hadn’t been such sad statement about how women–once again–are damned if they do and damned if they don’t have a life beyond mothering.”

Sally: “I think that while it’s more about her own issues with her mother than it is about feminism & motherhood, it opens up the discussion about the pressures of motherhood and feminism.”

Anniegirl1138: “That was a terribly sad accounting of a childhood and if all true than she certainly does have cause to be upset about it. Past a certain point though our parents failings cannot be blamed for who we are as adults.”

Renee Siegel,: “I’m proud to be Debbie’s mom even if Debbie (GWP) experienced me as ‘overly available.’ Relationships need constant nourishing, interaction, and even conflict to continue to grow and evolve. What matters to me is not just conflict, but the repair of broken times when feelings that are hurt can be repaired and oxygenated in order to survive….Relationships are not static things to be put on shelves once we pass childhood. It’s a lot of work, but well worth it when two people love and respect each other. It is particularly sad if a mother cannot enjoy her daughter’s success and happiness in whatever the daughter choses as a path in life. This works two ways– daughters can be proud of their mothers, as well.”

I interrupt this post for the following message: Mom, I am so incredibly proud of you, and who you’ve become.

When I was writing my book Sisterhood, Interrupted, I knew that my manuscript submission deadline was to be but an arbitrary end. I could have kept writing and writing and writing. Because mama drama (Chapter 5) is a story that just doesn’t quit.

In a recent issue of The Daily Mail, Rebecca Walker writes, “My mother may be revered by women around the world – goodness knows, many even have shrines to her. But I honestly believe it’s time to puncture the myth and to reveal what life was really like to grow up as a child of the feminist revolution.” Rebecca is a colleague of mine, and a peer. She contributed an essay to my anthology Only Child. I’m saddened to hear, as she reveals in The Mail, that she’s having trouble conceiving a second of her own. But publicly blaming her mother, and through her mother, flaming feminism, seems extreme.

Like Rebecca, I’m starting my journey to motherhood later. Had it not been for feminism, I might have stayed married to a first husband who was wrong for me (we divorced). Had it not been for feminism, and more specifically, the Pill, I might have conceived in my early twenties, a time when I was still growing up myself and would have failed miserably at motherhood. And let’s face it: had it not been for feminism, I would not be a writer publishing feminist articles and books–including some that question and critique the movement’s hot contentions and debates.

Like Rebecca, I too have had my share of conflict with my mother. We’ve screamed, fought, brought each other to our therapists, and duked it out. My mother is not a famous feminist, and to be sure she’s been ever present in my life–perhaps unlike Alice Walker in that regard, according to Rebecca’s account. My mother was overly available, and therein our troubles began. As one of the writers in our Only Child anthology puts it, sometimes we onlies can long for neglect.

Yes, my mother-daughter troubles were of the fixable variety. Perhaps Rebecca and Alice’s are not, and perhaps it is unfair for me to even compare. The personal is by all means political; when your mother is Alice Walker, no doubt those boundaries are bound to slide. But when Rebecca writes that “Feminism has much to answer for denigrating men and encouraging women to seek independence whatever the cost to their families,” I fear she is revealing far less about a movement and more about herself.

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The online Making It PoP: Translating Your Ideas for Trade workshop is back!

This fall, I’ll once again be offering a 5-week hands-on seminar for researchers and academics on writing book proposals. This teleconference features guests from the publishing industry and is paired with an ongoing online web forum in the form of a closed class blog.

The course is designed to help researchers, scholars, and policy “wonks” bridge the translation gap. I’ll encourage you to make bold observations, learn new tricks, and unlearn old ones—like hiding your voice behind footnotes or lit reviews, or subordinating yourself to your topic. You’ll learn why it’s essential to think about audience and market in a different way. We’ll explore the differences between popular and academic writing, why a dissertation is not a trade book, and how to write an effective book proposal–meaning one with the best chances of being sold.

In this course you will also learn:
• Techniques for de-jargonizing your prose
• Why “making it pop” does not mean “dumbing it down” or “selling out,” and how to deal with institutional scorn
• How to know whether your book idea has commercial potential
• The elements of a strong book proposal
• The importance of narrative, and what else editors look for
• The role of an agent
• The in’s and out’s of publshing in different popular media venues (online and print)

When: Five weeks, Tuesdays, October 7th – November 4th, 7:00pm – 8:15pm (via phone; ongoing online forum during the week)

Guest instructors from the publishing industry will share their expertise each week. Past instructors have included:

Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, published by Penguin Press in 2006, and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly

Laura Mazer, an editor and book consultant who has worked with publishers including Seal Press, Counterpoint Books, Soft Skull Press, Avalon Publishing Group, and Random House (see Laura’s Book Smarts column here and here and here on GWP)

Christine Kenneally, author of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language and a freelance journalist who has written for The New Yorker,The New York Times, Discover, Slate and Salon

Tracy Brown, President of the Tracy Brown Literary Agency

Amanda Moon, an editor at Basic Books and formerly an editor at Palgrave.

Jean Casella, a freelance book editor and formerly the publisher of The Feminist Press

For questions, pricing, and more, please contact girlwpen@gmail.com.

So one of my new summer goals–or rather, aspirations–is to get slow. Not too slow, just going for a little summer slow down is all. As you’ll see, it looks like I decided to start today, by not posting first thing this morning, as I usually do. Please be patient. A real post is coming soon, and before day’s end, I promise. And meanwhile, I invite all you busy GWP readers out there to join me in going slow!

On Saturday I ran a blogging workshop for folks at the National Council for Research on Women‘s annual conference. And I’ve promised those who couldn’t be there but wanted to that I’d post an informative follow-up here. Just wanted to say it’s coming! Stay tuned…

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My Courtney has been writing up a storm! Her latest:

A letter to Hillary on her campaign’s end
A piece on keeping youth voters engaged in the political process

Oh boy, I gotta jump in over at Slate’s XX Factor — and likely will — but just wanted to share this article by Dahlia Litwik with ya’ll, called We Need To Talk, which concludes:

[I]n the spirit of reconciliation, I’d ask our mothers and grandmothers to take another look at the young feminists of 2008—supporters of Clinton and Obama alike. We’ve got money we earned—not by pole-dancing for the most part—and we’ve chosen to spend it on political candidates! Not shoes! (Or at least on political candidates and shoes.) We are smart and educated and politically engaged. We are passionate about repairing the world for your grandkids and goofily confident that those same granddaughters will be someday number among the joint chiefs of staff and the National League pennant winners. And wasn’t that at the core of your dream for us? You are not invisible. But we are not blind. And maybe now’s not the best time to confess to this but these rose-colored glasses we’ve been wearing since January? We borrowed them from you. …

And for another generational take, do check out Linda Hirshman’s piece in The Washington Post, “Looking to the Future, Feminism Has to Focus”, in which Hirshman cites my fellow PWVers Gloria Feldt and Sonia Osario as well as feminist bloggers Jessica Valenti and Jill Filipovic.

Your thoughts?

(Thanks, Marco, for the heads up on Slate.)