The writer and poet Katherine Leyton discusses her new memoir Motherlike (Second Story Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta.

Motherlike by Katherine Leyton (Second Story Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Motherlike

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

In a deeply personal memoir, Katherine Leyton tells her story as a woman, a feminist, and mother. Her personal experiences and her evolving perspective shine a light on the universal experience that mothers encounter. The book is called Motherlike and it’s honest, raw and candid. It illuminates for a lot of us what it’s like to bring life into the world, and all the changes that ensue. I’ll talk to Katherine now about the book, about the experiences she writes about. They start off as addressed to her child, her son. She talks about how her life has changed over the course of being pregnant, and not just her life but her outlook on life itself. She talks about what she’s lost and gained as a result of becoming a mother, and the changes emotional and physical. Men come into focus too, and not just her relationship with her son’s father, but through negative experiences from men Katherine has encountered; how that shapes her own thinking, affecting it negatively as well. She also does something in the book, that as a male, I’ve had no comprehension of heretofore, the sleeplessness as a result of giving birth, and the postpartum depression and how it manifests itself. Katherine Leyton is a poet, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer from Toronto. Her first book of poems, All the Gold Hurts My Mouth, received the ReLit Award. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, and Bitch. She lives in Ottawa, but joined me earlier this month from Florida where she was visiting with relatives. This new book is published by Second Story Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Katherine Leyton; Ms. Leyton, good morning.

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