Editor's note: China Martens is the author of The Future Generation: Zine-book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others (Atomic Book Company, March 2007). Jessica Mills is the author of My Mother Wears Combat Boots (AK PRESS, November 2007). They're both great books, go check them out!

Jessica Mills is a partnered mother of two children, ages 7 and 1. She is also an activist, artist, a touring musician (who plays saxophone with Citizen Fish), and a first time book author. I've been reading her column of the same name in Maximumrocknroll (MRR) for years. We've traded zines, emails, and crossed virtual paths as "mama-writers" (although not in person yet, but will soon!). In 2007, both of us came out with our first books on independent, small presses.

I called her on the phone to chat about the process of becoming a first time author. We come from the same background (zines, mutual aid and DIY community) and so it was really cool to talk with her; after we had gotten our book deals, we also shared the overwhelming fear at a certain point that we were not up to this opportunity. In Jessica's case, she told herself "don't be a foolish loser – this is your dream, take it." For me, I leaned on the support of writer-mama and radical-librarian friends, which helped me through the terror of the process of writing a book, which had always been my dream as well. We have our differences, too: I'm a single mother and she isn't; "Daddy 'Nesto," as their two daughters call him, gave Jessica a lot of support and encouragement for which she is very thankful. Also, instead of having an 18-year-old daughter, like I had, who encouraged me and left me alone to work on my book, Jessica had to write this book with a new baby! --read more >>

Susan says: China is on tour with Ariel Gore right now! For details see the events news on the side bar... and now for your regularly scheduled interview!

Before the internet made it easier to network with other alternative parents, before there was a genre of mama zines, or even Hip Mama, there was "The Future Generation: The Zine for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others." Created by China Martens in 1990 (after the birth of her daughter in 1988), the zine was unlike any other. Her mother, who read to her from as early as one month old and fashioned cut-and-paste picture books for her as a toddler, was her original zinester influence. She has a short story "On The Road (with baby)" published in Breeder: Real Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers; is a columnist for Slug and Lettuce; and won the 2002 Baltimore City Paper "Best Of" zine award for "I was...a Student Nurse." Seventeen years later, China is still cranking out issues of her groundbreaking zine—most recently #15 "The Raising Teenagers" issue. She spent the last year compiling all of the issues into one too-good-to-be-true volume: Future Generation: The Zine-Book For Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends And Others

China and I have been long-time Internet friends and have collaborated on Mamaphiles, a mama zinester collaboration. When I heard about her new book, I couldn’t wait to (virtually) sit down and chat with her about the journey that led to it.

Stacey Greenberg: So why did you decide to put out a zine in the first place?

China Martens: I wanted to create an information and support network for alternative parents. There wasn’t anything like that at the time. It was very rare to meet other parents like myself. We were all hungry for information, departing off the "known" path of the way we were raised. It was hard being a parent in the subculture because you lost some of the support and resources you had first gained within it: you no longer could keep up in the same way because you were a parent. But you didn’t fit in with mainstream parents or parenting resources either. We needed to communicate with each other, and for the first time I felt I was experiencing issues that there wasn’t already a zine or a movement based around addressing. There was not even a single zine that had parenting essays in it or was made by a parent. (Not that I saw anyway, and I had been around a lot of zines in what felt, at the time, like the heyday of zines.) The closest thing I could find was Mothering Magazine which had the natural parenting stuff I believed in, but absolutely nothing political in it, or punk, or said anything about how to put your ideals into action when you were living the nitty-gritty life. (Like if you were poor or stressed out). --read more >>

At 9:00pm on a Friday, I was busy trying to get my monkeys (Satchel, age 4 and Jiro, age 2) in bed so I could sneak out and interview Kate Crowder, the lead singer of my new favorite band, Two Way Radio (formerly known as Walkie Talkie and briefly as Side Walk Talk). At 9:25pm, I said goodbye to my husband and drove down the street to a local bar where Kate said she'd be hanging out until their 11:00pm show time. As I nervously walked into the nearly empty bar, I saw Kate and her husband/bandmate, Corey, slip out the back door. I picked up my pace and headed towards the door hoping she hadn't forgotten our interview.

"So," I said in my official reporter's voice, "Tell me how you got started singing."--read more >>

AKrylik and PolyCotN, two busy moms who couldn't find the time to finish their knitting projects came up with a crazy, organic solution. They started Knitta, a knitting graffiti crew, to tag their neighborhood with small, easy projects like antenna covers and beer cozies. Stacey Greenberg, the creator of the zine, “Fertile Ground: For People who Dig Parenting�, recently interviewed AKrylik to see how sometimes in balancing motherhood, work, and art we have to listen to ourselves and be brave and know when it's time to change and refocus our energies. She found that if we can just learn to do that, we may wind up with something even more amazing that what we'd started out with.

Knitterview

AKrylik: We are a group of 11 Houstonians, 10 female (PolyCotN, AKrylik, WoolFool, LoopDogg, Knotorious N.I.T., Purl Nekklas 14kt, SonOfaStitch, P-Knitty, GrannySQ and Knitiot) and 1 male (MascuKnitity), ages ranging from 22 to 55 (actually, I'm only guessing at GrannySQ's age, so we're not entirely sure where the range ends). Four of us are moms. I have one little person. She's 10. PolyCotN has three, ages 3, 9 and 12. WoolFool has two, 9 and 5. Some of us have full time jobs out of the house. Some of us have full time jobs inside of the house (that definitely includes our one full-time mom). Some of us are students. Some of us own our own businesses. NONE of us knit full time. In fact, though we all like (are even obsessed with to a point) knitting, I think what brought us together was our creativity levels and the combined need to make this hobby a tad more edgy and stimulating. This is an interesting little side project for all of us that has developed into something really unbelievable. We only thought that we were embarking on some crazy, humorous adventure that the folks in the neighborhood would get a kick out of. Never in our wildest dreams did we guess that it would get this huge.

Read more!

Inconsolable: A Conversation with Marrit Ingman
By Stacey Greenberg

Marrit Ingman’s memoir on postpartum depression, Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health Out with the Diapers, is on the shelves now. The book is smart, funny, and groundbreaking. She writes honestly about her struggle to effectively parent her high-needs child when all she wanted to do was drive off a highway overpass.

Stacey Greenberg, the creator of the zine Fertile Ground: For People who Dig Parenting recently talked with Marrit via email to discuss the book, talk about the current state of motherhood, and even make fun of Dr. Sears a little.--read more >>

The George W. Bush Coloring Book: An Interview with Karen Ocker


By Jennifer Williams

Hey, moms! It's almost that time of year again! With the presidential election right around the corner, why not get you and your little radical the George W. Bush Coloring Book? See what illustrator Karen Ocker has to say about the creative process that brought it to life and then run and get your little rabble rouser-in-training her very own copy today! --read more >>

Waiting for Bebé: An Interview with Lourdes Alcañiz

by Jennifer Williams

Nopalitos for dinner? It's okay for mamis to indulge in the prickly green treats, according to Lourdes Alcañiz. During her first pregnancy, Alcañiz kept an ear out for that friendly and trusting voice that was impossible to hear thousands of miles away from friends and family. An award-winning journalist, Alcañiz soon decided to write a book for other expecting mamas to fill that void. That book became Waiting for Bebé: a Pregnancy Guide for Latinas. It includes a helpful appendix chock full of information, and is a handy resource to keep by any new or expecting mother's bedside. Alcañiz took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me on the phone from Spain.--read more >>

For those who follow the news about the American occupation of Iraq, the name Jeremy Hinzman might sound familiar. Hinzman is an American infantry soldier who went AWOL, brought his family to Canada, and is claiming refugee status because the military will not recognize his conscientious objection to performing combat duty. As a result, he has been the subject of numerous news articles in publications from around the world. The name Nga Nguyen, on the other hand, is not quite so familiar. Nga is Jeremy's wife, and the mother of their 22 month-old son, Liam. --read more >>