A Question of Balance: Artists and Writers on Motherhood - Softcover

"Art grows organically out of its society at its best... And if your connections happen to be family ones... then that's your world." So speaks Ursula K. LeGuin, on the myth of the isolated artist, in just one of the remarkable interviews in Judith Pierce Rosenberg's "A Question of Balance," where working artist/author moms, ranging from Dorothy Allison to Rita Dove, and many more, wax eloquently, movingly -- and practically -- on how one embraces the gifts of family and children, yet stays true to one's muse. An indispensable book for art-producing moms -- and dads -- everywhere.

"When I had my daughter, I learned what the sound of one hand clapping is?it's a woman holding an infant in one arm and a pen in the other," says poet and novelist Kate Braverman, who, along with 24 others, describes the often arduous path a woman must travel to combine motherhood with a career as a writer or artist. Certainly she must have the drive and self-discipline to do her work despite the demands of home and family; being organized helps, too, as does having a partner who is emotionally and?just as important, as interviewees stress?financially supportive. Linda Vallejo, who movingly describes how she is fulfilled artistically, spiritually and emotionally as an artist and mother, is also resolutely pragmatic, with a hired housekeeper and a strict work schedule. On the other hand, writer Perri Klass shares caring for the children with her writer husband and describes the couple's laissez-faire system of housework as "both of us do as little as possible.... Which means that we live in a fairly chaotic and messy house." Rosenberg's interviewees, who include such notables as Rita Dove, Ursula LeGuin, Mary Morris, Rosellen Brown and Trina Schart Hyman, offer a wealth of insights into the creative life and motherhood, as well as no-nonsense advice to women seeking to combine the two.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.