For anyone who has ever lost themselves — and fought to come back.
MOTHER! is an unflinching exploration of womanhood, motherhood, and the lifelong evolution of identity. Through poetry and essays, Summer Stewart traces the emotional, physical, and psychic territories women navigate before, during, and after becoming a mother — and the ways these experiences reshape everything we thought we knew about ourselves.
This collection moves beyond the cultural scripts of motherhood to reveal the intimate layers beneath: grief, sexuality, lineage, rupture, reunion, and the quiet moments of self-recognition that redefine who we are allowed to be.
Stewart charts matrilineal struggles with precision and tenderness, confronting the ways families inherit silence, resilience, trauma, and love. Her poems ask hard questions about the shifting contours of self post-childbirth, while her essays tackle:
MOTHER! is not a celebration of motherhood; it is an investigation.
It is a map back to the self — the self that existed before, during, and after.
Stewart writes with clarity, conflict, and unapologetic vulnerability. Her work resonates with anyone navigating identity, lineage, or the long, complicated work of becoming the person you needed when you were young.
This is a book about survival, reclamation, and the radical labor of mothering — ourselves most of all.
This collection moves beyond the cultural scripts of motherhood to reveal the intimate layers beneath: grief, sexuality, lineage, rupture, reunion, and the quiet moments of self-recognition that redefine who we are allowed to be.
Stewart charts matrilineal struggles with precision and tenderness, confronting the ways families inherit silence, resilience, trauma, and love. Her poems ask hard questions about the shifting contours of self post-childbirth, while her essays tackle:
- the double-edged blade of imposter syndrome
- shattering professional and creative barriers
- the distortions of parenting in the age of social media
- and the fierce, feminist act of standing back — allowing a child to rise into themselves
MOTHER! is not a celebration of motherhood; it is an investigation.
It is a map back to the self — the self that existed before, during, and after.
Stewart writes with clarity, conflict, and unapologetic vulnerability. Her work resonates with anyone navigating identity, lineage, or the long, complicated work of becoming the person you needed when you were young.
This is a book about survival, reclamation, and the radical labor of mothering — ourselves most of all.
PERTINENT DETAILS
Why This Book Matters
MOTHER! is a feminist companion for anyone who has ever questioned the stories they were handed about motherhood, womanhood, or what it means to hold a life while trying not to lose your own.It is for:
This book refuses to simplify women’s interior worlds.
Instead, it expands them.
- mothers
- daughters
- artists
- caretakers
- cycle-breakers
- and anyone living inside the aftermath of becoming someone new
This book refuses to simplify women’s interior worlds.
Instead, it expands them.
PUBLICATION DETAILS
- Genre: Poetry + Essays
- ISBN: 978-1-963115-43-7
- Publisher: Unsolicited Press
- Publication Date: May 8, 2026
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Distributed by: Asterism Books