I was grateful for Amy Nemecek’s review of Madonna, Complex that appeared at Mothers Always Write in July.

Motherhood can be more complex than we expect. In the empty ache of longing to be mothers, we sometimes forget we want to be anything else. In the frenetic fulfilled desires of motherhood, we often set aside dreams of being anything else. And when we work or serve or play apart from our role as mothers, we feel guilt for wanting to pursue anything else. 

In her first full-length collection, Madonna, Complex, Jen Stewart Fueston inhabits the spaces where these complexities collide. Some of these poems first appeared in her chapbook titled Latch, which I also highly recommend. All of them will resonate in the hearts of those who are mothers or who long to be mothers.