About

A magazine that started at a kitchen table, and stayed there.

ScreaminMamas is an independent literary magazine for everyday moms — published quarterly from Tampa, Florida since the spring of 2017.

How it started

In April of 2017, four friends with eight kids between them stapled together the first issue of ScreaminMamas in a Tampa kitchen. The print run was 80 copies. The submission pile was two emails and a napkin.

Forty-six issues later, we still print every issue. We still read every submission. We still meet at the same kitchen table once a quarter to lay out the magazine — though now with reading glasses, and now with a podcast.

"We made the magazine we wanted to read. It turned out a lot of other people wanted to read it too."

We've published 327 writers across 47 issues. About a third of them were publishing for the first time. We are very proud of that number, and we'd like it to keep growing.

The masthead

  • Editor in Chief

    Darlene Cah

    Founded the magazine in 2017. Hosts the podcast. Reads everything. Lives in Tampa with three children, two dogs, and a constantly-rearranged stack of submissions.

  • Poetry Editor

    Marisol Rivera

    Poet and high-school teacher. Joined ScreaminMamas in 2019. Believes that the best poems are the ones you can hear before you can read them.

  • Fiction Editor

    Eun-Jung Williams

    Short-fiction writer with two collections in print. Joined the masthead in 2020. Reads every submission twice — once for the story, once for the sentences.

  • Humor Editor

    Priya Talwar

    Stand-up comedian and former newspaper columnist. Joined in 2022. Will tell you that "funny" and "true" are usually the same word.

  • Managing Editor

    Jess Gunderson

    Keeps the calendar, pays the writers, and ships the print run. Joined in 2018. Reads only on the porch.

  • Designer

    Rosa Chen

    Sets every page. Hand-letters the cover wordmark for each issue. Joined in 2021. Insists that whitespace is not empty space.

Nine years, one magazine

  1. Issue 1Four friends, 80 stapled copies, two emails in the submission folder.

  2. First print partnerWe hand the print run to a Tampa shop and stop stapling for a living.

  3. Reading windows formalizedQuarterly issues, four-week response time. We've kept that promise every issue since.

  4. The pandemic issueOur most-submitted-to issue ever. We expanded the page count and paid every contributor.

  5. The shop opensBack-issues, totes, and a "Mothers, On the Record" mug nobody asked for but everyone wanted.

  6. Podcast launchOne conversation per writer per issue. Episode 1 was recorded in Darlene's car.

  7. Issue 40 — AnniversaryA double-length anniversary issue with 15 contributors, including three Issue 1 writers.

  8. Today47 issues, 47 podcast episodes, ~3,400 newsletter readers, one kitchen table.

Contact

Drop us a line.

For submissions: submissions@screaminmamas.com (please read the guidelines first).

For everything else — back-issues, podcast pitches, ad inquiries, kind words, hard truths: hello@screaminmamas.com.

By post: ScreaminMamas, P.O. Box 12846, Tampa, FL 33681.

— The mastheadTampa, Florida