It’s time to sign up for new online creative writing classes with Ariel Gore.
“Do You Have Beau?” – new Sunday essay in the Rumpus
Shame is the haunting that’s hardest to scrub away.
New creative writing classes
It’s time to sign up for new online creative writing classes with Ariel Gore. Find out more and register at The Literary Kitchen.
The Stranger’s Plot – new Essay in The Nervous Breakdown
The new arrivals drive Priuses and can be seen running fast back and forth, up and down the street carrying hand weights.
An old musician neighbor of mine yells out her window at them, “You can relax! You’ve already made it to the top!â€
But they don’t seem to hear her.
Blood-Red Bougainvillea – new Sunday essay in the Rumpus
I imagined my Gammie on the other end of the phone, her grey hair piled into a bun, a red silk scarf tied around it, her red-manicured nails clutching a Vodka tonic. Her skin was slightly darker than the rest of the women in our family, so she always joked about the milkman. “I can’t stand it,†she sighed now. “I’m the last Democrat in Orange County.â€
I held the receiver away from my mouth so my Gammie wouldn’t hear the inhale and exhale of my cigarette.
“Darling,†she said. “You’re doing a marvelous job–as well as anyone could do–but children need fathers, don’t you agree?â€
The End of Eve
“The End of Eve had just about everything I ever want in a memoir: WTF plot events, almost-over-the-top characters that you never doubt are real, gorgeous and breathtaking moments of introspection, and wry humor.â€
—Book Riot
“How Ariel puts human tenderness on the page is an act of poetry damn close to sublime.â€
—Tom Spanbauer
“An experienced journalist and writer across genre, Gore’s prose is both eloquent and spare. Ultimately, The End of Eve is Gore’s story—an account of the imaginative strategies she employs to survive and create—in which she demonstrates how, much of the time, for her anyway, surviving and creating are one and the same.â€
—Los Angeles Review of Books
You can buy all of Ariel Gore’s books from your local independent bookseller or from Powell’s.
Or listen to the audio version–read by the author.
Subscribe for Saturday morning writing prompts
Wake up and write! Now you can subscribe to Ariel Gore’s School for Wayward Writers and get weekly writing prompts. You’ll get a new writing assignment / writing prompt emailed to you every Saturday morning. Easy and affordable way to keep your writing practice fresh. $5 a month. Cancel any time.
The End of Eve wins New Mexico – Arizona Book Award
Ariel Gore’s darkly comic memoir, The End of Eve, just won a 2014 New Mexico – Arizona book award. You can get a signed copy right here. $16.95. FREE SHIPPING.
“It turns out that both life and art are balancing acts. In one as in the other, Gore seems to be saying that even as we acknowledge past traumas, we cannot let those wounds dictate our actions in the present. The End of Eve is a product of bravery, love, and hard-won wisdom. In sharing it, Ariel Gore invites her reader to bask in the light she has found.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Hip Mama Cover Censored
Issue #55 of Hip Mama magazine was on the verge of going to press when editor/publisher, Ariel Gore, posted the issue’s cover to her Facebook page. It pictures a woman in partial superhero costume breastfeeding her child and the tag line “No Supermoms Here.”
Social media users cheered the stunning self-portrait by Barcelona-based artist Ana Alvarez-Erreclade. The cover, designed by Hip Mama art director Maia Swift, was shared over a hundred times in less than 24 hours. But when some vendors got wind of the planned cover, they said they wouldn’t carry the image on their newsstands. Facebook censors soon joined in and began pulling the image from timelines. Complaints ranged from “nudity” to “open breastfeeding” to concerns about the age of the breastfeeding child (he’s four).
Photographer and subject Ana Alvarez-Erreclade suggested adding a red censorship dot to the cover, ironically drawing even more attention to the offending breasts.
Editor/publisher Ariel Gore refused to pull the cover or add the censor dot to all editions of the magazine, but contributors and editors agreed that a separate “newsstand edition” with the dot was better than suppression of the issue.
At press time, we have no idea whether vendors will carry the “newsstand edition” of Hip Mama.
In the updated issue of Hip Mama, Ana Alvarez-Errecalde responds to the controversy saying, in part, “Violence towards women begins with the repression of sexuality, the appropriation of childbirth, the interference with all vital cycles and the creation of manipulative roles. A negated mother will also negate her body and her presence to her children, so they will all ultimately conform to our unattended, unloved, and unnourished society.”
As Ana points out in the updated interview, right now this is about an image of an artist breastfeeding on the cover of a magazine, but moms face this everyday when we try to feed our children in restaurants or on airplanes or in other public places–we are asked to go into seclusion to feed our kids. This, while truly offensive sexist images are in our face daily in the name of “sex sells” and deeply disturbing and exploitative images of violence go unchecked in news media, marketing campaigns, and on social media.
To support Hip Mama and the uncensored artistic image we chose for the cover, subscribe to the magazine or order a single uncensored copy online: http://hipmamazine.com/subscribe
The magazine will be released on Mother’s Day.
SUBSCRIBE – $20 for 4 issues beginning with the UNCENSORED Spidey Mama Mother’s Day issue
The End of Eve
My new memoir is out March 1 from Hawthorne Books. I hope you like it.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ariel-gore/the-end-of-eve/