----------Interview by Renee Roberson
WOW: “The Stew Pot” is a powerful story of the connection and unspoken bonds between mothers and their children. How did you first get the idea to write on this topic, and how did the story evolve throughout the drafts?
Jeanine: I had this idea a few years ago. It was first published in an anthology and I made a few changes
when I submitted it to WOW’s Spring 2025 Flash Fiction contest. The topic came about because
so much of our lives from the time we are children revolves around food, and the cooking and
eating and gathering around meals. Often, we can close our eyes and envision the memories
associated with those meals; the aromas that permeated throughout the kitchen and entire house,
the conversations had, or even the silence that hung uneasily in the room, the print on our kitchen
curtains and how the light streamed through and landed on our hands or legs while we sat at the
kitchen table, and so much more. We can remember how not only our bellies were full if we
were lucky enough not to have food insecurity, but how our soul was full, how our emotional
hunger was satisfied or not.
Food offers us so much comfort especially in the midst of chaos. I wanted to convey that
familial and emotive chaos yet also show that strong bond between a mother and daughter using
the symbolism of the stew pot and the ingredients that were in it. It was such an easy story to
write that just flowed, so there weren’t many drafts, maybe one or two in which I mainly
concentrated on tightening my writing, deleting redundant words, fixing my grammar, etc.
WOW: What do you think is the most powerful line from “The Stew Pot?"
Jeanine: “Maybe she wanted to teach me how to deal with unhappiness and pain because she knew when
I became a woman it might land at my feet.”
That line resonates with me the most and so many other women that I know, how our mothers
mirror for us how to deal with pain, sometimes in good and not so good ways often because they
didn’t have a blueprint when it came to carrying their own pain.
WOW: You have such an impressive writing bio, Jeanine! What advice would you give any writer hoping to explore flash fiction for the first time, as the limited word count can often be tricky?
Jeanine: Write without restraint. Write until that story that refuses to let go of you is out in all of its
beautiful and messy hues and you feel spent. And then let out an elongated sigh or cry or splash
water on your face, or laugh until you roll on the floor if it’s a humor piece, and then go back to
what you wrote with fresh eyes. Strip it down, word by word or sentence by sentence, edit until
you get to the pulse of your story and the word count needed.
WOW: Could you tell us about the first time you had a piece of work published?
Jeanine: My first story was published in a magazine called Black Romance but the story that made me
feel really seen as a writer was in Essence Magazine. I wrote about the gap in my tooth and how
I learned to embrace it after doing some research and learning that several African tribes view a
gap in the teeth as a sign of beauty and spiritual strength and wisdom and good fortune. That
essay meant a lot to me because my mother carried the magazine it was in folded in her
pocketbook, yes, that’s what we called it back then. My mother would show it off to anyone she
met, even strangers at her doctor’s office, letting them know her daughter had an essay published
inside.
WOW: You have a children’s picture book that received publication as part of a prize package for the Sleeping Bear Press Own Voices Own Stories Competition. Could you tell us more about This Sunday My Daddy Came to Church?
Jeanine: This Sunday My Daddy Came to Church is a “heart story,” a “family story,” about accepting the
different ways we all worship. It centers around a young boy who loves going to church with his
mother on Sunday but his father doesn’t join them, and he wonders why. When he asks his
mother about it, she explains that there are different ways we worship and also talks about faith
and belief. I was so fortunate to have a wonderful Senior Children’s Editor from Sleeping Bear
Press, Barb McNally, to work with who saw my vision, and the talented USA Today
Best-Selling Illustrator, Robert Paul Jr., illustrate my book. His illustrations captured the
characters in my story perfectly and I am in awe each time I look at them. I must admit I do that
almost daily.
WOW: Thank you again, Jeanine! We are in awe of your success and can't wait to read more from you.
