BROADCASTS.com

Sheila Heti is the author of seven books. Her latest is Motherhood: A Novel.\n\n\u201c[My parents] were afraid for me. As anybody who has a kid who wants to be a writer. I think they understood it was a hard life. It was a life in which you wouldn\u2019t necessarily make enough money. It was a life in which you might be setting yourself up for a great amount of disappointment. My dad\u2019s father was a painter, so there was in him this idea that it wasn\u2019t so crazy to him. It wasn\u2019t so outside his understanding. And, yeah, my mom thought it was a bad idea. And it probably is a bad idea in a lot of ways, but my dad was supportive but also cautioning. I think the book really moved [my mom] and really had an effect on her, so maybe you understand that it\u2019s not necessarily a frivolous thing to be doing. Maybe it\u2019s not just playing. I think my mom always had this idea that writing is playing, and it is playing, but it\u2019s a serious kind of playing.\u201d\n\nThanks to MailChimp, MUBI, and Tripping.com for sponsoring this week's episode.\n\n\n@sheilaheti\n\n\nHeti on Longform\n\n\n[01:40] How Should a Person Be?: A Novel from Life (Henry Holt and Co. \u2022 2012)\n\n\n[01:45] Motherhood: A Novel (Henry Holt and Co. \u2022 2018)\n\n\n[2:50] Sheila Heti\u2019s archive at The Believer\n\n\n[07:30] The Middle Stories (McSweeny\u2019s \u2022 2012)\n\n\n[07:35] Ticknor (House of Anansi Press \u2022 2005)\n\n\n[09:10] Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (Jennifer Baichwal \u2022 Zeitgeist Films \u2022 2003)\n\n\n[36:50] Emergency Contact (Mary H. K. Choi \u2022 Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers \u2022 2018)\n[42:35] Da Ali G Show (Sacha Baron Cohen \u2022 Channel 4 \u2022 2000)\n\n\n[46:00] "Finding Raffi" (New York Magazine \u2022 Dec 2015)\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices