What considerations come into choosing to have a baby for creatives? And once baby enters the picture, how do you balance parenting with your creative practice? 

We ask Dinuka McKenzie and Lee Kofman, two beloved past guests who happen to be both authors and parents, about their decision to have children and how they manage their writing lives as parents. 

Plus, James has a big announcement – you'll never guess what it is. 

Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian memoirist, novelist, editor and writing coach. She’s the author of three fiction books and two memoirs, including Imperfect, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Nib Literary Award in 2019. Her short works have been widely published in Australia, US, UK, Israel and Canada. Lee’s most recent book is The Writer Laid Bare (Ventura Press).

Dinuka is the author of the Detective Kate Miles crime series, The Torrent, Taken and Tipping Point, published in Australia and the UK. She was the winner of the 2020 HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize and has been shortlisted for numerous major Australian crime writing awards. Dinuka lives with her family in Southern Sydney on Dharawal country.

Mascara Literary Review is looking for essays, flash fiction and poetry from disabled and chronically ill writers – closes 31 March. 

Books & authors discussed in this episode:

• Cyril Connolly 
• The Lady's Handbook to Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey 
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko 
• At the Strangers' Gate by Adam Gopnik 
• Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
• Your Baby Doesn't Come with a Book by Daniel Golshevsky
• The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus 

Upcoming events 

• James is having a baby! Well, not him personally. His wife. But he'll be there. Date and time TBA. 
• Ashley is teaching Pathways to Publishing in-person for the South Coast Writers Centre on Saturday, 15 March starting 10.30 am
• Ashley is doing her first-ever Canberra author talk at Big River Gin Distillery, Thursday 20 March, 6 pm, featuring chocolate martinis  
• Ashley is returning to the Occasional Wine Bar, Boorowa, on Friday 21 March, 6.30pm
• Ashley is appearing at Book Face Erina with Anna Downes on Tuesday 25 March, 6pm
• Ashley is appearing at Newcastle Writers Festival with Anna Downes & Petronella McGovern, and with Shankari Chandran & Jock Serong, 5-6 April
• Ashley is teaching Online: Writing Crime for Faber, 8 weeks starting Tuesday 6 May 

Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get your copies from your local bookshop or your library. 

Learn more about James's award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy from your local bookshop or your library.

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson