ABOUT THE BOOK
A GUIDE FOR EVERY WRITER WHO INTENDS TO SUCCEED AFTER HAVING KIDS.
Winner: First Prize 2021 Indie Award in Books about Writing/Publishing.
Book & Baby is a fun but factual writing craft reference book intended to inspire writers to stay on creative track through at all stages of parenthood from infant to grown-and-flown. Organized by age of child in the categories of time, energy and money.
Drawing on the experiences of many authors encountered during ten years of running a literary nonprofit that helps writers stay on creative track after starting a family, Milda M. DeVoe, founder of Pen Parentis, puts her Columbia MFA to good use in creating this fun, readable, helpful and inspiring reference book for parents, caregivers and others who feel too overwhelmed to write.
This Guide will:
-
help you learn how to write in short spaces of time
-
give you inspiration to keep you motivated during low-energy moments
-
help you learn how to make time out of no time
-
provide guidance for nurturing a writing career along with children
-
inspire you with true-life stories drawn from an archive of interviews with
-
serious, professional and even bestselling writers - all who have kids
-
introduce you to a plethora of resources to keep you writing
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M. M. De Voe holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Writing Fellow and studied under Michael Cunningham as well as Joyce Johnson, Helen Schulman, Stephen Koch, Nicholas Delbanco, and Michael Scammel.
​
Her short fiction is internationally acclaimed and has won more than 20 mentions and awards, including four Pushcart Prizes in short fiction.
​
In urban fantasy, horror, and science-fiction, M. M. De Voe was included in the Shirley Jackson award-winning anthology Twisted Book of Shadows and nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. She also won the International Campaign for Real Fear hosted by Black Static Magazine and was subsequently published in Daily Science Fiction, BuzzyMag.com, SpeckLit, and various anthologies including The Lane of Unusual Traders (Tiny Owl Press, Brisbane Australia) and Great Britain's Ellipsis Magazine.
​
Anthologized alongside author-heroes Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood in "Stirring up a Storm" (Thunder’s Mouth Press), her story, "Overheard", was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
​
The manuscript for her novel "The Boy Who Loved Trees" was a finalist for The Bellwether Prize and The Dana Awards, and won a grant from the Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation for gay-positive historical fiction.
​
The founder of the literary nonprofit, Pen Parentis, she has co-hosts their monthly literary salons in Lower Manhattan for more than ten years. She has won more than ten arts grants (including grants from New York City and New York State) for her work inspiring writers who are also parents to remain on creative track.
​
Her nonfiction guide "Book & Baby" won first prize in writing/publishing at the 2021 Indie Book Awards. It is her first book and includes interviews with many famous writer-parents like Min Jin Lee, Marcy Dermansky and Patty Dann.
​
She won the inaugural Regina Russo Outstanding Recent Graduate Award from her alma mater, and was awarded the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Sigma Tau Delta Alpha Alpha Chapter in 2014 (which she was president of in college).