Later this month, Zibby Owens will debut Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books: A Quarantine Anthology with a special virtual book launch and fundraiser. The writer turned podcaster turned book editor recently shared a few thoughts on starting her celebrated literary podcast, what she found most surprising about putting the anthology together, and what readers can expect from it.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books podcast, could you tell us a little about how it started?
I started it on a whim! I was writing a lot of parenting essays and my husband said, “You should really write a whole book of parenting essays.” I responded, “Moms don’t have time to read books!” I thought that could be a funny title for a book, but I ended up using it as a podcast title after a friend suggested I start one. I didn’t even know what a podcast was!
You’re releasing a written Moms Don’t Have Time anthology later this month. What can readers expect?
Readers can expect 60+ original essays inspired by five things moms don’t have time to do: eat, work out, breathe, read, and have sex!
Was there anything you found particularly challenging about putting together the book? Was there anything you found particularly surprising?
It was a challenge to pull this off during the pandemic! It was surprising – but delightful – how willing authors were to share their innermost feelings.
The virtual book launch is also serving as a fundraiser for the Susan Felice Owens Program for COVID-19 Vaccine Research at Mount Sinai Health System. How are you connected with the organization?
My mother-in-law, Susan Felice Owens, and her mother, Marie Felice, passed away within six weeks of each other from COVID last summer. I started the foundation at Mount Sinai Health System, where I’m on the board, to help find a vaccine and spare other families the pain my husband, Kyle, and his sister, Stefanie, went through.
If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take three books with you, what would they be?
One might be called “Tips for Getting Off a Desert Island.” The other two? An empty journal so I could record my experience and a photo album with pictures of my family. (But if I could sneak in one more, it might be Seinfeld’s book, Is This Anything?, because I laugh out loud every time I read an excerpt.)
Pictured above: Zibby Owens (right) with Susan Felice Owens, her mother-in-law.