Ok. You're in a jam. You need a last minute gift for a mama friend. Let me help you. Go to Brain, Child, and order a subscription. Get one for yourself, too. You won't be sorry.

This is a magazine mothers will love. Smart. Witty. Challenging. And it is published out of Virginia -- so while not overtly a southern magazine -- it grows out of the southern tradition of smart, strong, capable mothers. So, it is my favorite southern mothering magazine.

Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers was founded in 1999 by Jennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkinson, two friends who had babies under a year old. The pair, both with backgrounds in journalism, were itching for writing about motherhood that spoke to them. There were plenty of outlets for child-rearing tips and expert advice, but not a source of smart writing that delved into the meatier issues of that life-altering experience: motherhood.

After a year of planning, Brain, Child's first issue was published in March 2000. It included essays by Barbara Kingsolver and Susan Cheever, a feature on the new academic field of ethnopediatrics, a debate on the merits of family bed, fiction, and essays by mothers addressing the stuff of real-life parenting (swearing off swearing, or selective reduction, for example). That year, the magazine was named by Utne Reader as one of the five best new magazines in the country.

Brain, Child is the only print literary magazine dedicated to motherhood. Contributors have included Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Jane Smiley and Anne Tyler, best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich, and acclaimed writers Antonya Nelson, Alice Hoffman, and Susan Maushart.