“[My mother] really encouraged us to become whatever we wanted to become,” says bestselling author Rexanne Becnel. 

In celebration of Mother’s Day, hear accomplished authors including Erica Jong, Alice Walker, Rexanne Becnel, Anne Perry, and Hilma Wolitzer explain how being mothered and becoming mothers themselves has shaped their lives and work. Becnel and Perry recall how their mothers encouraged an early love of language, while Jong and Wolitzer reflect on how becoming mothers expanded and enriched their writing.

Join Open Road Media in honoring the crucial role played by mothers everywhere.

“A truly moral book is one which is radically open to persuasion, but looks hard and steadily at the problem,” explains John Gardner, author of the highly controversial text On Moral Fiction.

Gardner’s thesis is simple: “True art is by its nature moral.” It is also an audacious statement, as Gardner asserts an inherent value in life and in art. Since the book’s first publication, the passion behind Gardner’s assertion has both provoked and inspired readers.

Watch this video—featuring archival interview footage with John Gardner, as well as interviews with Joel Gardner and Jeffrey Tucker—to see why Gardner’s position remains as incendiary and exciting today as it was when first published more than three decades ago.

“I consider myself an ethnic gatecrasher,” says author Ishmael Reed in this original mini-documentary video.

(Source: youtube.com)

“I don’t believe there’s such a thing as ordinary life. I think all life is extraordinary,” says critically hailed author Hilma Wolitzer. 

(Source: youtube.com)