Amy Hudock

Department of English and Journalism
Trident Technical College
Charleston, SC , SC 29423-8067
amy.hudock@tridenttech.edu

publications

Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally inclined

Becoming a mother takes more than the physical act of giving birth or completing an adoption: it takes birthing oneself as a mother through psychological, intellectual, and spiritual work that continues throughout life. Yet most women’s stories of personal growth after motherhood tend to remain untold. As writers and mothers, Andrea Buchanan and Amy Hudock were frustrated by what they perceived as a lack of writing by mothers that captured the ambiguity, complexity, and humor of their experiences. So they decided to create the place they wanted to find, with the kind of writing they wanted to read. This unique collection features the best of the online magazine literarymama.com, a site devoted to mama-centric writing with fresh voices, superior craft, and vivid imagery. Literary Mama celebrates the voices of the maternally inclined, paves the way for other writer mamas, and honors the difficult and rewarding work women do as they move into motherhood.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms

Amy was a Women’s Studies professor at the University of California at Berkeley when she became pregnant. She ended up leaving academia and staying home with her daughter for two years. When she suddenly found herself a single mom,she went back to teaching at the University of South Carolina , where she had received her Ph. D. in English and Women’s Studies. Her essay in Power Moms tells the story of her first day back in the library as a researcher. While looking at the books around her, Hudock considers how what she learned as a stay-at-home mom can make her a better professor. The essay has been reprinted online by BeliefNet and you can read it here.
This book contains 101 great stories from mothers who have made the choice to stay home, or work from home, while raising their families. These multi-tasking, high-performing women have become today's Power Moms. Every stay-at-home and work-from-home mom will view this book as having been written just for her. Perfect for book groups, it will contain a reader guide.

Wendy Walker, author of Four Wives and The Queen of Suburbia, edited the book. She has become the go-to media expert on women leaving the workforce to raise their families and run their homes. She describes the book, “Author Jodi Picoult writes about her early years as a stay-home mom and writer. Lynne Spears writes about raising Britney. Mary Himes, wife of Congressman Jim Himes, writes about the sudden change in her life. Other moms write about making their decision to quit their paying jobs, and how they manage to afford it by digging coins from the couch cushions to pay the bills. There are doctors and lawyers, teachers and actresses, all doing the same job day in and day out – providing the primary care for their kids.”
You can get more information at www.wendywalker.com
Ask Me About My Divorce

Read Amy's essay, "Sex After Marriage" in Ask Me About My Divorce. It’s time to get past the idea that divorce equals failure. Sure, it may not be what you had in mind when you walked down the aisle, but if it’s the escape hatch into a better life, it should be filled with more promise. It can be celebrated.

Ask Me About My Divorce is a spicy, fun, riveting collection of essays by women from all walks of life. With the unifying thread "I got divorced, and the world came into view," the words within will make readers laugh, cry, nod their heads, and feel inspired to do what they need to for themselves. These aren't stories from women tiptoeing around a difficult subject — they're about the ways divorce can be, in fact, a new lease on life.
Cup of Comfort for New Mothers

Read Amy's essay, "Breathing Lessons," in Cup of Comfort for New Mothers. There’s a new baby in the house—and it’s not the only one crying. New moms cry happy tears, tired tears, and overwhelmed tears—and that’s when the wisdom, sensitivity, and empathy of women who’ve been there prove invaluable. In this book, you meet fifty mommies who’ve lived and loved through those terribly wonderful first months home with baby. From a first time mom faced with keeping her little miracle safe and happy once daddy goes back to work, to a mother who wonders how she will find time for the newest member of her already sizable family, these moving stories provide the support and reassurance first-time mothers need to enjoy their new role—and their baby—to the fullest!
Mama, PhD

Read Amy's essay "First Day of School" from her archived Literary Mama archived column Mothering in the Ivory Tower. This essay tells the story of Amy's return to the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom for two years.
Mama, Ph.D. is a literary anthology of deeply-felt personal narratives by women both in and out of the academy, writing about their experiences attempting to reconcile bodies with brains. This anthology voices stories of academic women choosing to have, not have, or delay children. The essays in this anthology will speak to and offer support for any woman attempting to combine work and family, and will make recommendations on how to make the academy a more family-friendly workplace. For more information.
Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers

Read Amy's award winning essay, "Altars of Sacrifice," in this collection of true stories from moms who know what single motherhood means.
In this empowering and bittersweet collection, you will meet single mothers who have created an unbreakable bond with their sons and daughters. From a woman who never misses one of her son's games-despite being the only single mother in the stands-to a new single mom whose three-year-old daughter provides comedic relief after a less-than ideal first date, these women will inspire and encourage you.
It's never easy to raise children alone. But in this heartwarming volume, you'll find inspiration and joy in the stories of fifty amazing women just like you-parenting on their own and doing it exceptionally well.
According to Sell, the book’s 49 stories celebrate all the unique aspects of being or growing up with a single mother. One of Sell’s favorites is “Altars of Sacrifice,” by Amy Hudock which is the quintessential lament of single mothers everywhere and gives voice to the many sacrifices most single mothers make,being stretched so thin — physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually, mentally –that virtually nothing is left for themselves. Then, in the middle of yet another sleepless night for this single Mom, comes an aha moment.
This beleaguered woman — who yearns for pleasure, peace, and partnership, but for years has been unable to envision, much less take a single step toward, those desires — realizes that, while she has been riding the tide of responsibility and worry, she has become an observer of her own life, rather than its captain and champion. And she decides, literally and figuratively, to get back in the saddle again.
As Amy eloquently writes in her story: “Maybe I haven’t been ready, and I needed the time to sit and watch. But the fact that I am even wondering about why I am still sitting here suggests that I am no longer content being an observer. I need to dust off my saddle and find my boots. Jumping a horse is the closest thing to flying I have ever known. Perhaps if I remember how to fly, I will remember how to sleep—and once I’m able to sleep again, maybe I can allow myself to dream.”

from Melissa Chapman's review at Single Minded Women
Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Tribute to Moms

Read Amy's essay, "Pride and Prejudice" which celebrates her mother's triumph over cancer. Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Tribute to Moms will help you show your thankfulness to the many moms in your life, be it your mother, stepmom, mother-in-law, or even your best girlfriend who is a mother. It's your chance to tell them how much they mean to you and how much you care.

And that's what the contributors to this very special book have done. Through their inspiring, moving, and often funny stories, poems, and cartoons, they all pay tribute to their mothers, and their contributions to this very special tribute book speak volumes about their love and admiration for the special person each calls 'Mom.'

Share in their memories and rekindle the memories in your own life. And if you're still finding it hard to come up with the right words to tell your mom how much you love and appreciate her, there's an easy solution: hand her this book, give her a hug and a kiss, and simply say, 'Thanks, Mom.'
Single State of the Union

Read Amy's essay "What Daughters Do" about being in the Sandwich Generation -- caring for both a young child and an ill parent -- and doing it all as a single woman.
Are single women happy individualists? Neurotic man-hunters? Crazed cat ladies? Are they confused, or content? Bitter, or better off?

No one seems to know. The popular media gives us shoe shopaholics, ditzy desperados, wannabe brides forever making cow eyes at The Bachelor. But what do single women have to say about their own lives?

With sass, humor, and style, Single State of the Union paints a provocative, playful, and complex portrait of today's single woman, taking on such topics as:

o sex and the single girl
o single motherhood
o buying a house without a spouse
o faux boyfriends
o cohabitation hesitation
o single women in the media

Written by an impressive roster of single (and some formerly single) women, this collection portrays single women as individuals whose lives extend well beyond Match.com and Manolo Blahniks.

So listen up, Carrie. Attention, Bridget. It's time for the rest of us to be heard.
.
Mothering a Movement

Read an essay about the creation of Literary Mama by Andrea Buchanan and Amy in this important book. Growing out of the excellent work done by the Association of Research on Mothering and its leader Andrea O'Reilly, this book will be released by Demeter Press in 2010.