Writing on Mothers

Mothers are among the ultimate female archetypes: after all, a mother’s body is where life begins. And even in this (relatively) enlightened age, mothers are the ones, more often than not, responsible for nurturing their children and ushering them safely to adulthood. No wonder that when things go wrong, the mother is often the first place we look for blame. Conversely, mothers of successful children are exalted as saints – and mothers of difficult children are martyrs … when they manage not to crack under the pressure. No matter which way you look at it, there’s a lot to live up to.

In honour of International Women’s Day, our host Monica Dux, along with Patti Miller and Ceridwen Dovey, we’ll explore the fertile territory of motherhood, and celebrate mothers on the page. We’ll look at the intricacies and the ecstasies of writing on mothers: writing our mothers, writing as a mother, and some of the worst and best mothers represented in fiction. (From The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’s Mrs Winterson, to Harry Potter’s Molly Weasley and I Capture the Castle’s Topaz).