Do any of the phrases below sound familiar to you?

"If yuh dohn go to school, yuh goin' be a tief or walk an' pick up bottle."

"One day wen yu have pickney, ah hope dem treat yu de same way."

"Yu jus' like yu fadda."


If you answered yes, then you have probably heard it from your West Indian mother or you’re a West Indian mother yourself!

We invite submissions for a book containing a collection of essays about “West Indian,” “Caribbean,” or “Island” mothers. We encourage authors who have West Indian roots or are 1st generation Americans to submit essays on personal experiences, life lessons, growing pains, generational differences, immigration issues, or presenting personal perspectives on West Indian mothers in general. There is no value placed on form or style…we value humor and grave/serious essays, prose or traditional essays, academic analyses or West Indian dialects and common vernaculars.

Essays submitted should be approximately 500-2,000 words long. We do encourage authors to write with a clear, goal-oriented style. The authors will send acknowledgement of receipt that will detail the particulars of submission, including publication information.

Submissions may be made emailed to mywestindianmother@yahoo.com.

If you have questions about submitting an essay, or would like to discuss an idea for an article, please contact the editor, at mywestindianmother@yahoo.com.

We reserve the right to edit submissions for length and style, with authors having the opportunity to review their edited essays before publication. We also reserve the right to decide at any point not to publish a submission. We make every effort to inform authors promptly when we have decided not to disseminate an essay.