"Whether you’re a single mother at the computer with a toddler spilling juice on your keyboard or dealing with angst-written teens, you can dip into Book & Baby for wisdom and wit or read it straight through."
PATTY DANN
This is a fantastic book for any parent who is trying to be a Writer. Especially loved the examples of real life parent-writers."
JOLENE SCOTT
"I can't say enough good things about it. Buy it. Read it. Then write your own book."
PAUL CONLEY
ABOUT THE BOOK
Partly a fascinating memoir tracing the development of the nonprofit Pen Parentis, partly an encouraging how-to manual, and lastly a valuable collection of helpful tricks, tips and resources for parents who write, Book & Baby, The Complete Guide to Managing Chaos & Becoming A Wildly Successful Writer-Parent is an inspiring writing craft book that showcases the experiences of more than 300 authors including such powerhouses as Patty Dann, Daphne Uviller, Mira Jacob, and Min Jin Lee, to address the various stages of parenthood and how a writing career could be affected at every stage from infancy to grown-and-flown.
Drawing on experiences gleaned from ten years of running the literary nonprofit that helps writers stay on creative track after starting a family, Milda M. DeVoe, founder of Pen Parentis, puts her Columbia MFA to good use in creating this fun, readable, helpful, and inspiring reference book for parents, caregivers and others who feel they need time, money, or energy to get back to their writing careers.
This Guide will:
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help you learn how to write in short spaces of time
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help you learn how to make time out of no time
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provide guidance for nurturing a writing career along with children
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inspire you with true-life stories drawn from an archive of interviews with serious, professional, and bestselling writers — all
who have kids -
introduce you to resources that will keep you on creative track
Beginning and ending with the motto: parenting done, write.
M. M. De Voe holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Writing Fellow who studied under Michael Cunningham as well as Joyce Johnson, Helen Schulman, Stephen Koch, Nicholas Delbanco, Matthew Sharpe, and Michael Scammel.
Her short fiction is internationally acclaimed and has won more than 20 mentions and awards, including four Pushcart Prizes in short fiction. Her debut short fiction collection, A FLASH OF DARKNESS, was published by Borda Books in 2023.
The founder of the literary nonprofit, Pen Parentis, she has co-hosted their monthly literary salons in Lower Manhattan for more than ten years. She has won more than ten arts grants (including grants from New York City and New York State and the NEA) for her work inspiring writers who are also parents to remain on creative track.