Breastfeeding Mama, at the Tempe Community Writing Contest

Question:

What do breastfeeding, Aztec fire rituals, family history stories, and porcupine quills have in common?

Answer:

They are all in my new essay titled “Breastfeeding Mama,” which won first place for adult nonfiction in the 2015 Tempe Community Writing Contest.

The History of the Essay:

I originally wrote this essay in January 2012 and submitted it to a writing contest. It sort of worked, but sort of didn’t. It then went through a number of further revisions. I even over-revised it to the point of ruining it. I took over a year off from the essay and then rewrote it, and started submitting it again.

The Essay’s New Home:

This year was the first time for the Tempe Community Writing Contest. The contest was a collaboration between the Tempe Public Library and Arizona State University. There were three categories of writing (fiction, poetry, and nonfiction) and three categories of people (adult, college student, and teenager). Almost 200 people submitted, and my essay was a co-winner for the Adult Nonfiction category.

Last night they had a reception at the Tempe Public Library, and winners got to read selections from their pieces. My husband counted, and there were about 80 people in the audience. And everyone laughed at my writing. Which actually made me very happy, as it is a humorous essay. It’s when you write a humorous essay and people don’t laugh that you need to worry. You should also worry when people throw tomatoes at you. But there were no tomatoes in the library. Only cookies. And (perhaps unfortunately) no one threw any cookies at me.

Read the Essay Online:

The book of winners published by the Tempe Library is available for free online: Tempe Writer’s Forum Volume 1. My essay starts on page 57 of the pdf.

(If you’re interested in reading the honorable mentions, they are available online as well.)

Content warning:

There are both breasts and babies in this essay, both of which are known to make some people feel supremely uncomfortable.

Original heart image by skyler817, Creative Commons license