In the United States, more than 15 million women are parenting children on their own, either by circumstance or by choice. Too often these moms who do it all have been misrepresented and maligned. Not anymore. In We Got This, seventy-five solo mom writers tell the truth about their lives—their hopes and fears, their resilience and setbacks, their embarrassments and triumphs. Some of these writers’ names will sound familiar, like Amy Poehler, Anne Lamott, and Elizabeth Alexander, while others are about to become unforgettable. Bound together by their strength, pride, and—most of all— their dedication to their children, they broadcast a universal and empowering message: You are not alone, solo moms—and your tenacity, courage, and fierce love are worthy of celebration.

Dr. Marika Lindholm founded ESME.com to ignite a social movement of solo moms. A trained sociologist, Lindholm taught courses on inequality, diversity, and gender at Northwestern University for over a decade. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly articles, she has been a regular contributor to Psychology Today, Working Mother, Mind Body Green, and Talk Space. She has published essays and fiction in the Daily News, Elephant Journal, The Hill, Ms., Silent Voices, and the Southern Indiana Review.

Cheryl Dumesnil’s books include two collection of poems, Showtime at the Ministry of Lost Causes and In Praise of Falling (winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize and the Golden Crown Literary Society Prize for Poetry); a memoir, Love Song for Baby X: How I Stayed (Almost) Sane on the Rocky Road to Parenthood; and the anthology Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, coedited with Kim Addonizio. Her stint as a solo mom ended in 2017 when she married her soul mate, Sarah, a.k.a. the Best Stepparent in the World.

Katherine Shonk is the author of Happy Now? a novel set in Chicago, and The Red Passport, a short-story collection set in Russia. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Tin House, StoryQuarterly, the Georgia Review, the Moscow Times, the Chicago Tribune, Cicada, and elsewhere. Shonk lives in her hometown of Evanston, Illinois, and works as a freelance writer and editor.

Domenica Ruta is the author of the New York Times bestseller With or Without You, a memoir about growing up with a heroin-addicted solo mom. Her forthcoming book, The Last Day, a novel, was written in a postpartum fugue state as a new solo mom to her son. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents Introduction 11 Marika Lindholm Chapter One: The Kids Are Alright The Road 15 Teresa Mei Chuc You Were Born to Be Loved 16 Domenica Ruta from The Light of the World: A Memoir 21 Elizabeth Alexander When One Door Closes, Another One Opens 24 Terri Linton Notes to My Autistic Daughter 27 Marianne Peel Forman I Was the Different One 30 Nisa Rashid Return 35 Dorianne Laux Teaching My Son to Write: An Abecedarian 37 Stacia Fleegal It’s Really Not a Big Deal 39 Jacob Kronenberg An Open Letter to Our Sperm Donor 42 Robin Silbergleid Dad Day: Death Is a Holiday 44 Lennlee Keep How to Pray 48 Sage Cohen Butterfly and Sunshine 50 Marika Lindholm Chapter Two: Lean on Me Finding My Voice, Feeding My Friends 57 Janelle Hardy For My Sisters 61 Sharisse Kimbro from A Beautiful, Terrible Thing 65 Jen Waite Raising a Boy Without a Man 71 Kathleen Laccinole September 17 76 Anne Lamott Prayer 78 Keetje Kuipers The Godfather 80 Margot Kessler the lost women 83 Lucille Clifton We Are Loved 84 Amy Rivers XIII 88 Adrienne Rich Tahlequah 89 Isa Down All the Single Ladies 90 Jennifer Baumgardner Chapter Three: A Day in the Life When a Car Wreck Collides with Picking Up the Kids 98 Melissa Stephenson How to Comfort a Small Child 101 Abby Murray Rules for Being Twenty 105 Ariel Gore Evening Guilt 108 Kristie Robin Johnson "I’m the woman who hit your daughter with my car" 111 Courtney Christine Life After the NICU 119 Sarah Netter My Life as a Refugee 124 Faleeha Hassan The Rookie 129 January Gill O’Neil This Is Your Life 131 Fern Capella Crying It Out 136 Robin Silbergleid They Give Awards For That 138 Lee Nash Chapter Four: Good Morning Heartache Why We Stay 141 VersAnnette Blackman-Bosia When He Died 144 Robin Rogers This Lesson My Boy Already Knows 148 Georgia Pearle from The Light of the World: A Memoir 151 Elizabeth Alexander Then 155 Ruth Stone When Black Lives Matter More than You Ever Imagined 157 Deborah Pannell In a Quiet Moment 161 Hilary Melton Heroin Rain 163 Anne Spollen On Home 168 Lisa Fay Coutley What I Will Tell His Daughter, When She’s Old Enough to Ask 170 Meg Day Grey Street 171 Angela Ricketts Chapter Five: A Change Is Gonna Come Now That I Am Forever with Child 178 Audre Lorde Coming Out Pregnant! 180 Staceyann Chin The Story, For Now 187 Janlori Goldman Myths of Botany and Motherhood 191 Isa Down Gravity 195 Kim Addonizio The Nervous Hospital 196 Mary Karr What Remains 202 Jaimie Seaton It Will Look Like a Sunset 207 Kelly Sundberg Cicadas 221 Rachel Jamison Webster My Books on Divorce 224 Amy Poehler Today, I Am Mostly Crying 230 Claire Gillespie Chapter Six: Isn't It Romantic Size Queen 234 Evie Peck All Manner of Obscene Things 239 Kim Addonizio Origami Wishes 241 Akesha Baron How My Daughter Taught Me to Trust Again 244 Rachel Sarah Personals 248 Muriel Johnson Kaboom 249 Susan Goldberg I Don’t Want Your Husband 256 P. Charlotte Lindsey How to Love 259 January Gill O’Neil You Can’t “Undo” This One 261 Jessica Bern I Ask the Impossible 265 Ana Castillo Chapter Seven: Here Comes the Sun Yeah, but . . . 268 Cheryl Dumesnil My Birth, My Way 276 Cate Morrissey How I Came to Me 279 Malaika King Albrecht Teacher and Teammate 282 Sarah Kowalski The Sky Is Everywhere 288 Nancy Sharp Divorce Cliché 290 Shannon Lell Sunday 292 January Gill O’Neil Why I Don’t Grieve for My Daughter at College 294 Ylonda Gault Deconstructing Kanji 298 Mika Yamamoto After He Left 302 Jeanie Tomasko I’d Loved Before, But Never Like This 304 asha bandele Contributors 307 Permissions & Acknowledgments 331