The authors in this collection examine and critique motherhood memoir, along- side the texts of their own lives, while seeking to transform mothering practice— highlighting revolutionary praxis within books, or, when none is available, creating new visions for social change. Many essays interrogate the tensions of maternal narrative—the negotiation of the historical location of writer and readers, nar- rative and linguistic constraints, and the slippery ground of memory—as well as the borders constructed between the "objective" scholar and the reader who en- gages with and identifies with texts through her intellect and her emotional being.