Like the Fractured Fairy Tales I loved so well, Jill Crammond's startling poems twist the old stories of motherhood until they crack, and let in both light and darkness. Archetypes of Mary, Jane, Barbie, and the witch are all delightfully re-envisioned here. I wish I'd had this slim guide of how to survive divorce and single motherhood sooner. Give it to all your friends. You never know when they might need it. -Barbara Ungar
"Say the word mother enough times it becomes other, " Jill Crammond writes in her chapbook Handbook for Unwell Mothers which confronts the mythos and mysticism of motherhood. This stunning and surreal chapbook flings open "windows closed tight from the truth" to show how close the darkness and domesticity sit. Crammond deconstructs the fairytale of motherhood to show the way mothers are perceived as: witch, object, prey. Through Crammond's impeccable worldbuilding, here mothers "[wear] the weight of yesterday's mascara," "dress the children in napkins," and [forgive] the plates their stains," as they confront isolation and subjugation from homes, men and even their children. This book, glittered with haunt, offers the danger and power "of a mothering.. that doesn't mother."-Kelly Grace Thomas