How to Expect What You're Not Expecting: Stories of Pregnancy, Parenthood, and Loss

How to Expect What You're Not Expecting awarded the Bronze Medal in the Parenting category by the 2015 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards.

One size fits all does not apply to pregnancy and childbirth. Each one is different, unique, and comes with its share of pleasure and pain. But how does one prepare for an unexpected loss of a pregnancy or hoped-for baby? In How to Expect What Youre Not Expecting, writers share their true stories of miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and other, related losses. This literary anthology picks up where some pregnancy books end and offers diverse, honest, and moving essays that can prepare and guide women and their families for when the unforeseen happens.

Contributors include Chris Arthur, Kim Aubrey, Janet Baker, Yvonne Blomer, Jennifer Bowering Delisle, Kevin Bray, Erika Connor, Sadiqa de Meijer, Jessica Hiemstra, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Lisa Martin-DeMoor, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Susan Olding, Laura Rock, Gail Marlene Schwartz, Maureen Scott Harris, Carrie Snyder, Cathy Stonehouse, and Chris Tarry.

The fourth book in a loosely linked series of anthologies about the twenty-first-century family, How to Expect What Youre Not Expecting follows Somebodys Child, Nobodys Mother, and Nobodys Father, essay collections about adoption and childless adults. Together, these four books challenge readers to re-examine traditional definitions of the concept of family.

Jessica Hiemstra is an author and poet who is widely published in literary journals. She was the winner of the Malahat Reviews 2010 Open Season Award for Non-Fiction, a finalist for the 2010 Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem, and the winner of the 2009 Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival poetry award. No stranger to collaboration, Jessica is currently writing a novel with her mother and working on a collaborative poetry project with other Canadian poets called Translating Horses.

Lisa Martin-DeMoor is an award-winning writer, poet, and editor. Her work has appeared in a broad range of literary journals and has been broadcast on US and Canadian radio. She has won and been shortlisted for literary prizes and awards for poetry, creative non-fiction, and fiction. These days she teaches creative writing at Concordia University College in Edmonton, as well as edits fiction. She is currently at work on a novel and a second, full-length manuscript of poetry.