Mothertongues

Shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards- Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.A genre-defying, collaborative marvel that brings the absurdity of motherhood to the page.After sharing their artistic frustrations at the school gate, two women decide to take a risk- to co-write a book about early motherhood. Off-colour, offbeat, off their heads, they begin - but then, what is motherhood if not messy, non-linear, multi-authored and potty mouthed?Together they gather scenes and songs, poems and text messages, insights and ephemera, alive to both the playfulness and the danger of co-creation. From the salvaged scraps of their daily lives they make an intimate collage of absurd mothering, failing mothering and moving mothering, imagining themselves into a future where women don't always have to choose between art and motherhood.After all- these mothers are tired. They are busy. They are lucky. They talk. Perform. Categorise. Clown. They do sad dinner cabaret. They do heroic odyssey. They do motherhood the musical. No bells and whistles, no false cheer. They do it badly, they do it well, they do it and they do it, and they keep on doing it as women do- comically, communally, creatively.Funny, thoughtful, vulnerable and disturbingly familiar, Mothertongues up-ends ideas of genre and speaks motherhood anew.

Mothertongues is a collaborative endeavour by Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell that captures two essential concepts that are crucial yet often undervalued in our lives: motherhood and art-making. Drawing from Dovey's interest in collaborative writing and Bell's background in theatre, the book breaks apart the traditional form, using a fragmented blend of prose, poetry and theatre to explore what it means to be a mother and an artist, and how it is possible to pursue both. Lyrics from singer-songwriter Keppie Coutts, who recorded an album of original songs inspired by Mothertongues, are also dispersed throughout the book, adding another layer to the collage of words. Drawing from influences including Homer, Virginia Woolf, Sheila Heti and the theatre of the absurd, Dovey and Bell reveal not only their own experiences of mothering and motherhood, but also the history of the labour and how it has often interrupted the creative work of female artists. Although Mothertongues explores a serious topic, the authors approach it with humour and absurdity. From nonsensical lists written while breastfeeding to a musical about having children, the book reflects what motherhood is: a non-linear, 'fever-dream fantasia'. 'To create anything means upsetting a balance elsewhere,' write Dovey and Bell, and that proves true in both art and motherhood. In the creation of Mothertongues, the authors situate collaboration at the heart of the endeavour, upending the idea of writing as a solitary act. The diverse and experimental exploration of motherhood and art-making allows Mothertongues to appeal to mothers and non-mothers alike, for readers of Sheila Heti and Jenny Offill. Anthea Yang is the editorial assistant at Books+Publishing.

Ceridwen Dovey (Author)Ceridwen Dovey is a writer based in Sydney. She's the author of several acclaimed works of fiction (Blood Kin, Only the Animals, In the Garden of the Fugitives, Life After Truth, Once More With Feeling) and non-fiction (On J.M. Coetzee- Writers on Writers and Inner Worlds Outer Spaces- The Working Lives of Others). Her non-fiction essays have been published by newyorker.com, the Smithsonian Magazine, WIRED, Vogue, the Monthly and Alexander, among many others. She's the recipient of an Australian Museum Eureka Award, and the 2020 & 2021 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for science writing. Her latest book is Mothertongues, a work of literary fiction co-authored with Eliza Bell, and including original songs by Australian songwriter Keppie Coutts.Eliza Bell (Author)Eliza Bell is a teacher, writer and theatre actor, originally from America and now living permanently in Australia. Her theatre performances include- The Memory of Water, A Midsummer Night's Dream, New Jerusalem, The Accident, Charles Mee's Snow in June, Donnie Darko and Three Sisters. She trained at Studio Magenia Ecole de Mime in Paris and the Moscow Art Theatre, UC Berkeley and the ART Institute at Harvard University.

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