ISsUE 4 - Spring/Summer 2023

In Mother Tongue issue four, we analyze dreams (about sexy lions) with Bat For Lashes, and talk Real Housewives and real smiles with Jenna Lyons. We make sense of Whitney Houston with Amil Niazi and tend to songbirds of a different kind with artist Sheida Soleimani. We hit the road in Texas, as Dina Gachman takes us on a winding tale of revenge without remorse, and build a house for the future with Christene Barberich. Photographer Martina Zanin asks us to consider what happens when feline fixations go too far, and illustrator Rachel Deutsch conjures the everyday horror of our children’s unmeetable expectations. Sophie Ebrard contemplates sex and intimacy after kids, author Angela Garbes bridges the mother-daughter divide, and Ruby Warrington and Pooja Lakshmin discuss whether having children even makes sense anymore? And much, more more, including contributions by Kholood Eid, Victoria Hely-Hutchinson, Sarah Hoover, Annie Armstrong Miyao, Bonnie Morrison, Rachel Sperry, Shana Trajanoska, Taravat Talepasand, Ruth van Beek,​​ Anaïs Wade, Han Wang, Diana Weymar, Amber Winick, Lauren Withrow, LaTonya Yvette and Alex Zafiris.

ISsUE 5 - FALL/WINTER 2023-2024

In Issue 5 we talk about The End—of marriage, of life, of the world as we know it. We get nostalgic about the sublime weirdness of Anne Geddes and make a list of virgin births (besides the obvious). We navigate the unchartered territory of embryo adoption and find meaning in fermented fruit. 

Mira Jacob considers the “Margaret Thatchers” of her family, while poet Yrsa Daley Ward has had enough of Malcolm Gladwell. Writer Molly Prentiss and photographer Frances Tulk-Hart remind us that we must always notice the minutiae and marvel, and artist Andi Galdi Vinko documents the climate crisis through the eyes of our children. There’s also talk of phantom limbs, and a trip to Copenhagen—where Hillary Kelly trades secrets with Danish author Olga Ravn. And before we’re through, we laugh about schizophrenia with comedian Atsuko Okatsuka; we get existential about chocolate with Priyanka Mattoo; and we think about planting roots with Kailea Loften, who runs away and goes home, all at the same time.

ISsUE 6 - SPRING/SUMMER 2024

In this issue we discuss the coexistence of seemingly incompatible things—humor and trauma with filmmaker Lulu Wang and author Priyanka Mattoo; rejecting pregnancy and embracing motherhood with writer Samantha Mann, and attempting to solve the mysteries of self with no real clues to go on with poet Maggie Smith. We revel in the confidence of the Real Housewives with illustrator Jess Rotter and get weird about candidates’ wives with Sarah Hutto; and we talk empathy and non-binary thinking in a post-October 7th reality withMoh Mahdara, Rabbi Sharon Brous and BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors. We forgo categorization with artist Hayv Kahraman; rally for sisterhood with Salamishah and Scheherazade Tillet; and look to the right and left with Shannon Watts. We try on chore coats and grief with Jessie Gaynor; resist hoarding with Victoria Hely Hutchinson; examine the symmetry of our breasts with Caitlin Scholl; and last, but quite obviously not least: We get lusty about midlife with our cover star Miranda July, in a sizzling profile written by Hillary Kelly. Oh, you thought we were done? This issue also features work and words by Michelle Arcila, Lesly Deschler Canossi, Paula Codoner, Alex Free, Alma Haser, Lucy Jones, Nanse Kawashima, Emma Larsson, Zoe Lescaze, Nadiya Nacorda, Maggie Shannon, Ashley Simpo, Akilah Townsend and Anaïs Wade.

ABOUT

Mother Tongue is a biannual print magazine that interrogates (and celebrates) modern motherhood through inclusive stories about art, sex, pop culture, politics, food and a few things in between.

It’s not about kids or how to parent them: it’s about the nuanced lives we are living—as mothers, and much more.

The magazine is edited by co-founders Melissa Goldstein and Natalia Rachlin and designed by creative director Vanessa Saba.