TORN (Coffeetown Press Trade Paperback Original, ISBN: 978-1-60381-097-5, May 1, 2011, 288 pp., $18.95) has been heralded by the press as “a poignant look at how a generation of mothers is trying to forge its own identity while honoring the legacy of 60s and 70s feminism.”-- Neal Pollack, Vanity Fair columnist and author of Alternadad and Stretch). In the book, 47 women examine the conflict between the need to nurture and the need to work, and reveal their creative solutions for having the best of both worlds.

“TORN comes at a pivotal time in history,” says editor Samantha Parent Walravens. “The idea of women pursuing high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealizable by ordinary mortals. Mothers today are getting real. They are freeing themselves from the expectation to be everything to everybody (and look fabulous while doing it). The Age of the Superwoman is dead.”

The publication of TORN comes on the heels of a recent White House report entitled Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being (March 2011) that shows how women are faring in the United States today and how their lives have changed over time. This is the first comprehensive federal report on women since 1963, when the Commission on the Status of Women, established by President Kennedy and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, produced a report on the conditions of women.

“Just as the Obama Administration is addressing the challenges faced by women and girls, TORN takes a close look at the obstacles that women today encounter when they become mothers--both personally and professionally,” says Walravens. “TORN not only opens a window into American women’s lives, but serves as a guidepost to help us move forward.”

Samantha Parent Walravens is an award-winning journalist, writer and mother of four children. She was an editor for PC World magazine before leaving journalism to chase the “Internet dream” in the mid-1990s. She has since returned to her true passion, writing, and has published articles on topics including politics, business, lifestyle and women’s issues. Samantha is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University and has a Master’s in Literature and Women’s Studies from the University of Virginia. TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood is her first book.

ABOUT Coffeetown Press—Based in Seattle, Washington, Coffeetown Press has been publishing the finest fiction and nonfiction since 2005.

TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood

Edited by Samantha Parent Walravens

Coffeetown Press Trade Paperback Original; May 15, 2011

(ISBN: 978-60381-097-5 / Parenting, Women’s Issues / $18.95 / 288 pp.)

For further information, please visit: www.samanthawalravens.com