shanleysam_2023_115_webFifteen years ago, when she’d nearly set aside her decades-long love for writing short stories, Samantha began writing emails to her siblings, regaling them with tales from the parenting trenches. Her siblings began forwarding these stories around to friends and other family members before finally convincing Samantha she should start writing a blog. So, she did. This switch to nonfiction writing put the rails up on her storytelling, allowing her to focus on details rather than structure, and off she went.

Samantha’s writing on parenting and relationships has since appeared in a number of publications.

She blends anecdotes with humor and insight, drawing upon her own experiences to reflect on this often ridiculous, sometimes painful, and ever joyful life.

In addition to her essays, Samantha recently completed her first book, a memoir about being a fourth-generation divorced mother who learns to change the course of her family’s trajectory.

Her work is linked below.

The Boston Globe Magazine:

Keeping It Together (April 2024)

Telephoning Birdy (June 2021)

Middlebury Magazine:

On Memory (Summer 2024 / Print Only MiddMagSummer2024_On Memory)

What to Wear Now (March 2021)

The New York Times:

Reflecting on Summer Camp in Our Campless Summer (July 2020)

Practicing Gratitude, for a Change (November 2019)

The Truck That Sparked Our Marriage Back to Life (March 2015)

The Washington Post:

I’m A Mother. But My Emotional Labor Is Not Free for the Taking (May 2018)/ How Do You Keep A Family Together Through Divorce? (June 2017)/ Here’s How I Helped My Tween Cope with Fear (May 2017)/ I’m a Mom, But Sometimes My Mother Still Knows What’s Best (June 2016)/ This Summer, My Kids Are Going to Mom Camp (July 2016)/ The Search for Post-Baby Identity (May 2016)/ Becoming Me, Through Heartache (November 2015)/ When the Youngest Child Becomes the Middle Child (March 2015)/ When One Parent Travels (January 2015)/ Bringing on the Babysitters (December 2014)/ I’m a Mom, the PTA President, and Pro Legalization (November 2014)/ The Transgender Quandary That Wasn’t (November 2014)/ My Husband and I Had No Time for Each Other, So We Created It (October 2014)/ Letting Imagination Win (August 2014)/ When Sisters Become Mothers (July 2014)

The Village Life Series for the Washington Post (July/August 2015):

Motherwell Magazine:

How A Family Roller Disco Saved Our Winter (March 2021)/ Making Toffee at the Holidays with the Woman I Never Knew (December 2020)/ Housewife (Poem, August 2020) / Finding My Creative Work-Life Balance in A Taco (July 2018)/ After Divorce, When A Fish Is Not Just A Fish (March 2018)/ Learning How to Parent Together, After the Marriage is Over (June 2017)/ At the End of A Family’s Difficult Year: Gratitude (November 2016)

Huffington Post:

Saying Yes to Animals, as Long as They’re Not Ours (July 2014)

Quail Bell Magazine:

For Something of Summer (May 2016)

Parent.com:

Teaching Children to Carry On, Through Grief (October 2017)/ In An Age of Mean Girls, These Girls Started Heart Company Instead (June 2017)/ In the Midst of Your Own Struggles, Charitable Giving Can Help (December 2016)/ When Number Three Becomes the Only One, for Now (September 2016)/ When A Game of Catch Becomes A Conversation Between Mother and Son (August 2016)

Mamalode:

When the Escape You Long for Leads You Back Home (January 2016)