I’m joined by two incredibly talented and funny writers, editors, novelists, mothers (in no particular order) - Jen sookfong Lee (also a celebrated poet) and Stacey May Fowles (also an award-winning sports journalist).After their first collaboration on Whatever Gets You Through: Twelve Survivors on Life After Sexual Assault, they joined forces again in 2020 to work on another anthology. Except this time, it was on a topic that they both found very close to home- literary life and motherhood. Published this May, Good Mom on Paper is a collection of twenty essays, exploring the fraught, beautiful, and complicated relationship between creativity and motherhood. 

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Today's episode is a Mother's Day special featuring an audio montage from Dear Seekers' past conversations with five writers who mother- Victoria Chang, Claudia Dey, Harriet Alida Lye, Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr and Heidi Sopinka.

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My second conversation from The Write Way to Mother series is with Ashley Audrain, author of one of the most celebrated debuts in 2021, The Push - a novel about motherhood (in a nutshell). It raises some very dark questions like: what if we don’t form a connection with our children? What happens if our children turn out to be someone we absolutely did not anticipate? The novel has been sold in over 20 countries and was on the New York Times best selling list for WEEKs. After many lined up to bid on the screen right, U.K. producer David Heyman eventually won the bid. He is known for his work on the Harry Potter films, A Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and many more. 

Ashley is such a warm and welcoming person and I enjoyed our conversation very much. We talked so much about motherhood and writing: how she managed to find stolen times to write during those early motherhood days; how motherhood was the catalyst for her to step out of the shadow and became a best-selling author; and how different her writing processes are from the first novel to the second.

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Today, I’m joined by Germany-born, Toronto-based Jeanine Brito, who I first connected with through Instagram many years ago when she was still working on Sophomore, a magazine that she created in her early twenties with a group of good friends. Even though Jeanine had been working as a designer in a various of companies over the years- from an interactive designer in a tech start-up, to a graphic designer at Umbra, and eventually to the creative lead at Global Mail’s Content Studio, I always knew there was an artist in her. To be fair, I’m sure she knew that too. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that Jeanine finally re-connected with her inner artist and was able to put more attention on her artistic practice and pursuit. For many artists in any discipline, finding their voices and artistic vocabulary might take years. But for Jeanine, it took one pandemic. Being forced to stay in a confined space, in a way, has evoked an if-not-now-then-when moment. With some very clear signs and guidances from the universe, Jeanine recently took a leap of faith to take her art practice full-time.

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Marlowe Granados definitely knows how to tease, flirt and seduce, not people, but life. Growing up with a single mother and being close with her grandparents, Marlowe’s desire to play hide-and-seek with life and grab life by its tail was never lessoned, but rather, encouraged. She takes her pursuit of pleasure very seriously, especially during difficult times. Loosing her dear mom during her teen years left a significant mark in her personal life but yet she chose to not let it be the overcasting shadow. Marlowe started writing Happy Hour when she was 22, but it wasn’t until nearly 8 years later she got to taste the fruit of her labour. After many rejections over the years, Happy Hour was eventually picked up by Flying Books in Toronto in 2020 as their first in-house publication. Since then, it has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Another, and many more. The ripple effect has put Marlow and her debut novel right under the spotlight, which turned out to be quite a bizarre experience to her. To introduce Marlowe as one, two, or even three professions would be a disservice to her and to the world. She writes, she styles, she photographs, she paints, and she has directed and acted in a film. Do not guess what she is going to do next, because she might not even know either. Even if she does, we probably will never guess it.

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I recently met Dear Memory, a memoir that has essentially changed my life- not only because it forced some of my own uninvited, buried childhood memories to painfully resurface, but also has opened my imagination to what a memoir could look like. My conversation today is with its author Victoria Chang, and Claire Foster, who led me to this incredible book.

Victoria is a prolific poet who has written many critically-claimed and commercially-celebrated poetry books- including Barbie Chang, The Boss, and Obit, which earned her many noble awards and the spotlight that (surprisingly) led her to a two-year long depression. Victoria is one of those very intriguingly contradictory people- dark and light, reserved yet extroverted, and someone who only looks towards the future while writes to dig through the past.

Claire is a literary translator from French and a bookseller at Type Books in Toronto. For Small Press and The Review of the Center for the Study of Arts and Literatures of North Africa, she has translated short texts by George Sand and Isabelle Eberhardt. Her translation of Pierre Clémenti's 1973 prison memoir, A Few Personal Messages, is forthcoming from Small Press.

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In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Maira Kalman, the most senior guest I’ve had on the podcast so far- she is 73, yet she is one of the most playful and dreamy people I’ve ever met. She is an author, illustrator and artist based in New York. Maira has written and illustrated over 30 books, both for adults and children, and her works have appeared in a numerous of publications, such as the New Yorker, New York Times, and many more. One of her most provocative works was Sara Berman’s Closet, a memoir of her late mother Sara- who immigrated from Belarus to Tel Aviv in 1932, one day in her 60s, self edited, self reinvented and created a new identity, and since then, had never looked back and exclusively worn only white pieces. After her death, her personal garments and belongings were preserved by Maira, and eventually exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

During our conversation, Maira talks about the daily rituals she has been practising for over 25 years, the power of not knowing and not over thinking, and the beauty of restraints.

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My first guest for this series is Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch- a novel published last year in 2021. Although it’s categorized as fiction, I would argue it’s more a cross-genre piece that is part auto-fiction, part science-fiction. The protagonist in the book is an artist and stay-at-home mom who turns into a dog (yes, you read it right). This is one of the most bizarre and imaginative books I’ve read in a long time. It’s dark, funny, weird and wild. It’s magical. It’s provocative. It’s an easy read to devour yet a difficult read to digest. 

This is a very special episode- not only because it’s the first of this series, but also because I’m joined by a co-host for the first time. Her name is Elizabeth Polanco, a writer, editor based in Toronto. When Elizabeth isn’t writing or editing, she works at one of the most beloved vintage shops- Mama Loves You. Elizabeth was the one introduced me to Nightbitch. So I thought it would be interesting to invite her to join me on this conversation as I was curious to hear about her reading experience considering she isn’t a mother herself. 

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Brought to you by Dear Seekers, The Write Way to Mother is a new series explores the intersection of art and motherhood. You can learn about how this series was conceived and manifested right here.

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In today’s episode, I’m joined by Jackie Kai Ellis, a multi-hyphenate who splits her time between Paris and Vancouver. Jackie has started many creative and artistic endeavors in her life. Big and Small. After pursuing her passion for pastry in Paris, Jackie opened an award winning bakery and cafe Bouquet in Vancouver, which she has since then sold to two of her original teams. She wrote a memoir - The Measure of My Powers which later became a national best seller. She created The Paris Tour that hosts pastry tours in Paris, and now she writes an advice column- Ask Jackie for Vitruvi’s Natural Habitat magazine and is the head of Product development for Flax Home.

In this conversation, we talk about memory, its fluidity, movement and how it influences the way we see ourselves. We talk about Jackie’s creative process of writing her memoir and what it has helped her discover. We also touch upon digital footprint and exchange thoughts. We caught Jackie in a very transitional space as she is expecting her first baby- at the age of 42. She also shares how she is feeling now about becoming a mother. 

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I’m very excited to bring you the first episode of 2022. Today’s conversation is with Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr, a writer, teacher, and daughter of Dorothy Akunyili, a Pan-African hero who battled corruption and faced down misogyny in Nigeria.

In this conversation, Chidiogo shares her experience writing this part-autobiography, part memoir; she touches upon language and how each language we speak evokes different parts of our personalities and memories, and we also exchange thoughts on motherhood and healing, and how these two intersect and interwind.

This is a very rich conversation. I really hope you can join me to the end.

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This conversation is with Lee Dekel, owner of 100 percent Silk, a shop and gallery space located on Queen st. West in Toronto. Lee also designs their in-house label 100 percent silk. Yes, same name. Same philosophy. The idea is to bring hard to find independent labels that champion the artisanal techniques and craftsmanship, which sadly are dying. Lee has created a universe that is very unique and distinctive. This free-flowing conversation touched upon a wide span of topics, including new motherhood, social media, being a creative during the pandemic, creative collaborations and more.

Dear Seekers is now a bi-weekly newsletter sent out on every other Sunday morning with podcast conversations like this one, column and diary style essays like this one, and sometimes internet rabbit hole finds. As a newsletter subscriber, you have early access to a more raw and less edited episode.

Photography: Vai Yu Law

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