Saima Mir on marriage, dreams and late flourishing
06/23/22 • 52 min
Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.
'I am my childhood’s wildest dream,’ says Saima Mir. This episode is about the process of getting there, not just the determination and hard work, but also the intangibles: the beliefs, ambitions and understandings that you don’t even know how to articulate, but which hold you up on a decades-long journey to becoming.
In this conversation, the journalist and bestselling novelist talks about shame, failure, the experience of being gossiped about - but also the inner strength and family support that allowed her to reinvent herself after leaving her first two husbands. Saima came late to journalism, but forged a successful career on TV and in print before writing her genre-changing (or will it be genre-defining?) novel, The Khan. Here, she surveys that pathway to this place, and how it built her iconic character, Jia Khan.
We talked about:
- Shame, failure, the experience of being gossiped about
- Inner strength and family support that allowed her to reinvent herself
- Her best-selling novel, The Khan
SAIMA LINKS
KATHERINE LINKS
Shop all books from The Wintering Sessions
Note: this contains affiliate links which means Katherine will receive a small commission for any purchases made.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.
'I am my childhood’s wildest dream,’ says Saima Mir. This episode is about the process of getting there, not just the determination and hard work, but also the intangibles: the beliefs, ambitions and understandings that you don’t even know how to articulate, but which hold you up on a decades-long journey to becoming.
In this conversation, the journalist and bestselling novelist talks about shame, failure, the experience of being gossiped about - but also the inner strength and family support that allowed her to reinvent herself after leaving her first two husbands. Saima came late to journalism, but forged a successful career on TV and in print before writing her genre-changing (or will it be genre-defining?) novel, The Khan. Here, she surveys that pathway to this place, and how it built her iconic character, Jia Khan.
We talked about:
- Shame, failure, the experience of being gossiped about
- Inner strength and family support that allowed her to reinvent herself
- Her best-selling novel, The Khan
SAIMA LINKS
KATHERINE LINKS
Shop all books from The Wintering Sessions
Note: this contains affiliate links which means Katherine will receive a small commission for any purchases made.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Ross Gay on delight
Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.
This week, Katherine talks to Ross Gay about finding delight in dark times.
Ross’s practice of writing down a daily delight - a small surprise or pleasure that might otherwise go unnoticed - is the foundation of The Book of Delights, his bestselling essay collection. Here, he talks about the way that delight can sit alongside our fear, anger, frustration and grief, not to block them out, but to find a way to survive them. Along the way, we touch on fleeting moments of human connection, the joy of tending a garden, and childlike art of noticing.
In a first for The Wintering Session, Ross closes with a beautiful reading that meditates on the softness of living in a male body.
We talked about:
- Fleeting moments of human connection
- The joy of tending a garden
- The childlike act of noticing
ROSS LINKS
KATHERINE LINKS
Shop all books from The Wintering Sessions
Note: this contains affiliate links which means Katherine will receive a small commission for any purchases made.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Emma Dabiri on history and belonging
1 RecommendationsWelcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.
Producer Note: You'll notice a slight change in Katherine's audio in the second half of the podcast. This is just due to a necessary 'source switch', where we had to change where her recording was coming from. Your ears will adjust very quickly but apologies for the ever so slight dip. Thank you!
This week Katherine talks to Emma Dabiri, author of Don’t Touch My Hair and What White People Can Do Next.
What begins as a conversation about Emma’s new-found commitment to appreciating all the seasons - not just summer - becomes something else entirely. Emma is one of our most agile thinkers and fearless speakers, and soon she is talking about everything from race and class to how we should think about the world right now. A thread of belonging runs through it all - how we seek and find it, how complicated our identities have become, and why it matters.
EMMA LINKS
KATHERINE LINKS
Shop all books from The Wintering Sessions
Note: this contains affiliate links which means Katherine will receive a small commission for any purchases made.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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