Riding Shotgun

A group of Americas celebrated literary women have come together to tackle a topic close to their hearts: Mom. These highly personal yet often universal stories offer windows into those influential mother-daughter moments that have forever shaped the lives and perspectives of the writers, powerful womenauthors, spokespeople, scholars, teachers, and some mothers themselves.Jonis Agees mother haunts her daughters plumbing. Tai Colemans mother struggled to raise five children on her own wits and a single pay check. Heid Erdrichs mother showed her daughter both the falsity and the truth in the cliche of the Indian Princess. Sheila OConnors mother, who ran a road construction company, was not like other mothers. Ka Vangs mother dodged the hand grenades that her husbands first wife threw on her wedding day. Morgan Grayce Willows mother drove home late at night after selling cosmetics to farm wives as her daughter rode shotgun.In true tales of startling candor and rich insight, these and many other talented writers reflect on the women who raised them, revealing hard work and hardship, successes and failures, love and angermothers and daughters.Contributors: Jonis Agee, Elizabeth Jarret Andrew, Sandra Benitez, Barrie Jean Borich, Taiyon Coleman, Heid Erdrich, Diane Glancy, Jan Zita Grover, Denise Low, Alison McGhee, Sheila OConnor, Shannon Olson, Carrie Pomeroy, Susan Power, Sun Yung Shin, Faith Sullivan, Ann Ursu, Ka Vang, Wang Ping, Susan Steger Welsh, Morgan Grayce Willow.