Professor Andrea O’Reilly, renowned for establishing the academic discipline of Motherhood Studies, released her newest book entitled, In (M)other Words: Writing on Mothering and Motherhood 2009-2024. With this collection of work, O’Reilly expands the conversation about the meaning and nature of motherhood which was initiated by Adrienne Rich in her book, Of Woman Born close to fifty years ago. In (M)other Words features 25 pieces of writing, examining the oppressive and empowering dimensions of mothering and motherhood.
“An extraordinary treasure trove of riches,” says Lucy Jones, the author of Matrescence. “Andrea O’Reilly has done more than perhaps anyone in the 21st century to express, improve and empower the lives of mothers and care-givers. Her contribution to bringing issues of the maternal out of the shadows is unrivalled. This collection of her writing is essential reading for all people. A gift of a collection… A profoundly important, deeply generative and provoking assemblage of work, analysis and imagination by one of the greatest thinkers and minds of our modern age.”
Dr. Andrea O’Reilly is internationally recognized as the founder of Motherhood Studies (2006) and its subfield Maternal Theory (2007), and creator of Matricentric Feminism, a feminism for and about mothers (2016) and Matricritics, a literary theory and practice for a reading of mother-focused texts (2021). She is full professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University, founder/editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative and publisher of Demeter Press. She is co-editor/editor of thirty plus books on many motherhood topics including: Maternal Theory, Feminist Mothering, Young Mothers, Monstrous Mothers, Maternal Regret, Normative Motherhood, Mothers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters, Maternal Texts. She is author of three monographs including most recently Matricentric Feminism: Theory Activism, Practice, the 2nd Edition (2021). In spring 2024 a collection of her essays, In (M)other Words; Writings on Mothering and Motherhood, 2009-2024, was published, and in fall 2024 her next edited book, The Mother Wave: Theorizing, Enacting, and Representing Matricentric Feminism will be released. She is currently completing her monograph Matricritics as Literary Theory and Criticism: Reading the Maternal in Post-2010 Women’s Narratives. She is twice the recipient of York University’s “Professor of the Year Award” for teaching excellence and is the 2019 recipient of the Status of Women and Equity Award of Distinction from OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations). She has received more than 1.5 million dollars in funding for her research projects including her current one on Millennial Mothers.