Books published by Demeter Press

This is a book about being young, being a mother, and grappling with what it means to inhabit these two complex social positions. This book critiques the dominant, negative construction of young motherhood. Contributors reject the notion that the "ideal" mother is a 30ish, white, middle-class, able-bodied, married, heterosexual woman situated in

"Don't women with children travel?" Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael enquire, in their book A Mother's World: Journeys of the Heart (1998), when discovering the absence of portrayals of travelling mothers. Addressing this absence, our book Travellin' Mama: Mothers, Mothering and Travel explores the multiple dimensions of motherhood and travel.

Interweaving my experiences as a Canadian Muslim woman, mother, (grand)daughter, educator, and scholar throughout this work, I write about living and narratively inquiring (Clandinin and Connelly, Narrative Inquiry) alongside three Muslim mothers and daughters during our daughters' transition into adolescence.

Conceiving of and representing mothers without their children seems so paradoxical as to be almost impossible. How can we define a mother in the absence of her child? This compelling volume explores these and other questions from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, examining experiences, representations, creative manifestations,

Heavy Burdens: Stories of Motherhood and Fatness seeks to address the systemic ways in which the moral panic around "obesity" impacts fat mothers and fat children. Taking a life-course approach, the book begins with analyses of the ways in which fatphobia is enacted on pregnant (or even not-yet-pregnant) women, whose bodies become viewed

Although motherhood writings are rich and emerging, the available literature on midlife motherhood and mothering is incomplete and often presented from a narrow perspective. Middle Grounds: Essays on Midlife Mothering fills this gap, widening the lens on a sociological phenomenon that is expanding in the twenty first century.

Mothers and mothering have been a long-time focus of research and study in various academic disciplines, and common topics of interest in mainstream press and popular culture, yet the experiences of mothers and mothering in the area of sport have been less explored.

This anthology is a collection of personal accounts, research, treatment approaches and policy commentary exploring women's experiences of mothering in the context of addiction. Individual chapters focus on a variety of addictions during pregnancy or mothering including misuse of substances, food and smartphones. A central theme of the book is

Mothering and music are complex and universal events, the structure and function of each show remarkable variability across social domains and different cultures. Although motherhood studies and studies in music are each recognized as important areas of research, the blending of the two topics is a recent innovation. The chapters in this

Spawning Generations is a collection of stories by queerspawn (people with LGBTQ+ parents) spanning six decades, three continents, and five countries. Curated by queerspawn, this anthology is about carving out a space for queerspawn to tell their own stories.

For myriad reasons, breastfeeding is a fraught issue among mothers in the US and other industrialized nations, and breastfeeding advocacy in particular remains a source of contention for feminist scholars and activists. Breastfeeding raises so many important concerns surrounding gendered embodiment,

Parenting brings countless hopes and worries. But when external factors create fear and cast a shadow long and deep across motherhood, what happens to the act of mothering? Through personal and academic essays Canada, the United States and Palestine, these authors explore what it means to mother through times of struggle, uncertainty

Examines the experiences of motherhood and mothering from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. The lucid analysis of how globalization influences the lives of mothers in regard to cultural, political, historical, social, and economic factors provides a compelling examination of the myriad of relationships between mothering and globalization.

This interdisciplinary and international volume explores the many ways in which mothers and the military converse, align, contest, and intersect in society. Through various chapters that include in-depth case studies, theoretical perspectives and personal narratives, this book offers insights into the complex relationship between motherhood and

This cross-disciplinary collection considers the intersection of affect and mothering, with the aim of expanding both the experiential and theoretical frameworks that guide our understanding of mothering and of theories of affect. It brings together creative, reflective and theoretical pieces to question and re-conceptualize motherhood through

This book is about the two-tiered system and invisible imbalance that operates within the framework of the family. It is about the fantasy of the "happily- ever- after", which the wedding industry promotes and Western society reinforces.

Missing, dead, disappeared, or otherwise absent mothers haunt us and the stories we tell ourselves. Our literature, from fairytales like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid to popular narratives like Cheryl Strayed's recent book Wild, is peopled with motherless children.

Drawing on interviews done in the Indian subcontinent, this book suggests that while colonial violence haunts postcolonial sexualities, anti-colonial resistance also remains, echoing in the streets like the chorus of an old song ~ A-za-di-.

This book considers Black Motherhood through multiple and global lenses to engage the reader in an expanded reflection and to prompt further discourse on the intersection of race and gender within the construct of motherhood among Black women. With an aim to extend traditional treatments of Black motherhood that are often centered on a subordinated and struggling perspective, these essays address some of the hegemonic reality while also exploring nuance in experiences, less explored areas of subjugation, as well as pathways of resistance and resilience in spite of it. Largely focusing within domains such as narrative, identity, spirituality and sexuality, the book deftly explores black motherhood by incorporating varied arenas for discussion including: literary analysis, expressive arts, historical fiction, the African Diaspora, reproductive health, religion and social ecology.

Examines the experiences of women mothering in conflict areas. The aim of this collection is to engage with the nature and meaning of motherhood and mothering during times of war and/or in zones experiencing the threat of war.

Explores SlutWalk through a feminist lens (broadly defined) considering SlutWalk as a successful social movement, a site of tremendous controversy, and an ongoing discussion among and between waves of feminists across the life cycle and across the globe.

Brings together pieces that reveal how the intellectual, emotional, and physical work of mothering is informed by women's religiosities and spiritualities. Contributors examine contemporary and historical perspectives on spiritual mothering through interdisciplinary research, feminist life writing, textual analyses, and creative non-fiction work.

An interdisciplinary anthology of stories, rituals, and research that explores mothers' contemporary and traditional uses of the human afterbirth. Authors inspire, provoke and highlight diverse understandings of the placenta and its role in mothers' creative life-giving.

Explores the gamut of Toni Morrison's novels from her earliest to her most recent. Each of the essays examines the various ways in which Morrison's work delineates and interrogates Western culture's ideological norms of mothers, motherhood, and mothering.

Makes a case for the need to de-gender the framing and study of parental legacy. The actualization of an entire collection on this dyad foregrounding motherhood without particularizing the absence of fatherhood is in itself revolutionary.

Explores how and why immigrant/refugee mothers' experiences differ due to the challenges posed by the migration process, but also what commonalities underline immigrant/refugee mothers' lived experiences.

This unique literary anthology features thirty-five poems and twenty-three works of prose (creative non-fiction and short fiction). Here, forty-three award-winning and accomplished writers reflect on their complex twenty-first century familial identities and relationships, exploring maternal landscapes of all kinds.