Rebecca Diem on Trusting Creativity in Motherhood

Owen Sound's newest Poet Laureate talks parenthood magic and trauma

“It's such a vulnerable experience giving birth…
once you go through that, getting up on stage and talking about it feels not as scary.”

-Rebecca Diem

Season 3 of Lauren’s Best features conversations with creative parents. We kick it off in conversation with someone Lauren first met way back in high school.

Rebecca Diem is a writer of hopeful speculative fiction and poetry, hosts the podcast “Read The North”, and has recently added ‘mom’ to her repertoire of creative pursuits. As a creative parent, she’s constantly striving for harmony between her work, life and family, facing the threat of losing her creative spark in motherhood.

“You really do fear at different points that you're never going to come back to your creative self or your creative practice.”

After leaving the city they lived in and moving to a small beachfront Ontario community, to Rebecca’s surprise (and our benefit) she rekindled her passion for poetry. The words jumped out at her from the sand and the waves as she processed the extreme experience she just had in giving birth to her daughter.

“Those first days are magical, but they are also traumatic. And you have to hold the magic and the trauma together in the palm of your hand and, and look at it and say, yeah, like, this is parenthood.”

Now, as Owen Sound’s newest Poet Laureate, she’s focused on offering that understanding and connection with others. She’s reaching out in conversations, through her words and the events she has planned during her tenure.

“I'd never shared such, such vulnerable human moments through my work before. And it found such a resounding response and so much community and connection.”

I’m thrilled to reconnect with Rebecca, who has so many honest and positive messages for new parents. Her message in today’s episode mirrors her goals for her laureateship - you are not alone.

Rebecca Diem writes hopeful speculative fiction and poetry. Her work can be found on Reactor and Write Magazine, and she is the author of the indie steampunk series “Tales of the Captain Duke”. She is currently finishing her first full-length novel and working on a postpartum poetry collection inspired by beach walks with a sleeping baby. She is the Owen Sound Poet Laureate for 2024-2025.

A specialist in communications and strategic initiatives, Rebecca has built a career spanning the public and non-profit sectors with a focus on culture and community. She also hosts the Read the North podcast taking listeners behind the scenes of contemporary Canadian and Indigenous literature. With favourite writing spots on three continents, Rebecca now calls Grey-Bruce home with her Australian composer husband and their ocean-eyed daughter.

• Website: rebeccadiem.com

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rebeccadiem

• Instagram: instagram.com/kthnxbex