The women who populate Laura Rock Gaughan’s debut collection, Motherish, veer from playful to distraught, reckless to restrained, anchored to unmoored. Gambling grandmas, athletes and organists, pregnant bus passengers and punitive bank tellers are pushed to the brink by Gaughan’s distinctively precise prose, while they grapple with what it means to mother and be mothered. With various perspectives, Gaughan creates box after box—and actual chicken coops—for her characters to explode from, hide in, emerge out of, and ultimately transform.

Canadian-American writer Laura Rock Gaughan's work has appeared in numerous magazines including The Antigonish Review and The New Quarterly. Born in California and raised in western New York, Gaughan honed her craft in Lakefield, Ontario, where she currently lives and writes. Motherish is her debut collection of stories.

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The stories in Laura Rock Gaughan's Motherish are full of life. Characters leap off the page, sharing their faults and dreams, their ruinous rage, and illuminating joy. The demands of ordinary tasks are met by the surprise of art and invention. These stories are a delight to read.

-Carrie Snyder, author of Girl Runner and The Juliet Stories