Labor of Love Anthology Published Today!

Today is pub day for Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology. The collections includes work from Literary Mama editors going back over the journal's first 20 years online. I'm delighted to have been a member of that staff, as both Literary Reflections Editor and Senior Editor, for almost half that time, until I stepped down last March, and I'm honored to have an essay included in this anthology.

It's easy to imagine—or project—a degree of tenderness in the way an adult osprey peels off flakes of fish with its hooked bill and deposits them in the gaping maws of its downy fledglings, the way I once spooned applesauce or mashed sweet potatoes into the toothless mouths of my infants. It's equally easy to detect a note of resignation, if not outright irritation, in the way the osprey drops a fish at the feet of its giant, ungrateful fledglings.

This is an excerpt from my essay "Fledging Season" which appears in Labor of Love. There will be a book launch event held via Facebook Live here on February 1 at 8 p.m. eastern time.
I'll be reading a little bit of my piece, along with many other fantastic contributors.

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Hope to see you on February 1 for the reading!