Masha Rumer
Masha Rumer's writing covers issues related to parenting, immigrant identity and work-life (im)balance. She got her start teaching college composition and ESL, as well as writing and editing for several news organizations, winning awards from the New York Press Association and The Pentagon. During the day, she helps others craft their own stories. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, SheKnows, The Moscow Times, Quartz, Dow Jones Newswires, Scary Mommy, Kveller, Volume 1 Brooklyn and others. She holds graduate degrees in Comparative Literature and in Communications. Her first nonfiction book, Parenting with an Accent, was published by Beacon Press.
For more information about Masha Rumer:
News
PARENTING WITH AN ACCENT is shortlisted for Story Circle’s 2023 Sarton Award
Masha Rumer for the LA Times: “Op-Ed: A notebook with family recipes reminds me of Ukraine’s strength”
Books
Parenting With an Accent
A blend of on-the-ground reporting and personal anecdotes that weaves a tapestry of the immigrant experience, multicultural parenting, and identity in the US.
Through her own stories and interviews with other immigrant families, award-winning journalist Masha Rumer paints a realistic and compassionate picture of what it’s like for immigrant parents raising a child in America while honoring their cultural identities. Parenting with an Accent speaks to immigrant and non-immigrant readers alike, incorporating a diverse collection of voices and experiences to provide an intimate look at the lives of many different immigrant families across the country.
With a compelling blend of empirical data, humor, and on-the-ground reportage, Rumer presents interviews with experts on various aspects of parenting as an immigrant, including the challenges of acculturation, bilingualism strategies, and childcare. She visits a children’s Amharic class at an Ethiopian church in New York, a California vegetable farm, a Persian immersion school, and more. Through these stories, she opens a window to a world of parenting unique to multicultural families. Immigrant readers will appreciate Rumer’s gentle message about the kind of ethnic and cultural ambivalence that is born of having roots planted in many different soils, while in these pages non-immigrants get a fly-on-the-wall view of the unique experiences of newcomers.
Deeply researched yet personal, Parenting with an Accent centers immigrants and their experiences in a new country—emphasizing how immigrants and their children remain an integral part of America’s story.
(Beacon Press, November 2021)