When she's not "flitting hither and thither" inside the chaotic world of motherhood, Ayun Halliday pens a parenting column in Bust Magazine called "Mother Superior."
Halliday's voice is one that's rarely heard in mainstream parenting publications. She's smart, funny, honest and writes about relevant-yet-unique subject matter, from lemonade stands to what would happen to her kids if she and her husband died before they came of age.
A graduate of Northwestern University, the Indiana-born Halliday now resides in Brooklyn with her husband Greg Kotis -- who wrote the Broadway musical "Urinetown!" -- and their two children, 9-year-old India ("Inky") and 6-year-old Milo.
Aside from the column, Halliday wrote four books, keeps a food blog and is the author of an almost-a-decade-old 'zine called The East Village Inky. Plus, she's a licensed massage therapist.
OnMilwaukee.com recently caught up with this once-Midwestern hip mama and picked her brain about all sorts of stuff.
OnMilwaukee.com: What's it like working with the women behind Bust, and how did you connect with them?
Ayun Halliday: I can't quite remember how this evolved into my "Mother Superior" gig, but I'm awfully glad it did, as I was and am a fan of the magazine. The editors excel at placing exciting, grassroots-level, creative, woman-made projects on the radar.
OMC: Are there any topics that you won't write about in your column?
AH: Anything that Greg would interpret as a betrayal of his privacy, and the details of a chronic medical condition affecting one of the main characters.
OMC: How has being a mom affected your writing?
AH: I would say that being a writer has affected the way I approach motherhood. I strive to remember that it's not just about me and my children, but also about universals and community.
OMC: What has been the most challenging aspect of motherhood? Most rewarding?
AH: The most challenging aspect so far has been the sheer grind of it. I'm taking a break from folding the laundry I've spent the last near-decade schlepping up and down three flights and around the corner, my pockets full of quarters. Also, coping with exhaustion and the bleak reality that Mama's needs are always the last to be met.
The most rewarding is the physical affirmation, the little arms around my big, old, blubbery waist. My heart also swells to see them becoming readers, writers, artists, comedians ...
OMC: What are you working on these days-- other than the column?
AH: Oh lordy, I'm flitting hither and thither like some sort of difficult-to-pin down butterfly, but I hope that some day soon a contract-waving publisher will take the initiative and pin me to the velvet. I have ideas for a young adult graphic novel, a children's book, a collection of short stories, an autobiographical cookbook with non-food-related photos, and a book of satirical erotica that has Anais Nin's cake while making sport of it too. Take your pick. The next issue of the East Village Inky -- No. 33 -- is nearing completion, too.
OMC: How do you think of topics? Are they always biographical or sometimes fiction?
AH: I think that's an occupational hazard, though I find it much easier to draw from life than from sheer imaginative invention. There are some topics I always mean to get around to in "Mother Superior" -- such as Inky's sexual education -- but then when I sit down to write, something else will pop up.
OMC: Where does the name "Inky" come from? It's very cute, by the way.
AH: My daughter's given name is India and her father's surname is Kotis, so it's extrapolated from that. To be honest, though, a few years before she was conceived, I'd read a novel -- by Shirley Anne Grau, if memory serves, though the title escapes me -- in which there was this minor, but colorful character named Inky. He was a fisherman of squid, I believe. Wait, do they catch squid in Florida? I think it took place in the Everglades, though why do I think he had a French surname and a Cajun accent? You can see what a reliable memoirist I am. At any rate, the 'zine is named in her honor, and even though we moved to Brooklyn, and I had another kid, I couldn't see much sense in altering the name of the 'zine.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
