This will be the last edition of The Spark podcast and newsletter, maybe for a while, maybe ever. I will be using the time freed up to focus on my short story collection, Staring into the Sun. I do love The Spark as a means to connect to other writers, so we’ll see what happens to it.
For the full interview with Teresa Wong, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.
📚 Recommendations for ravenous readers
Here are the recommended reads for January.
Dear Scarlet by Teresa Wong (2019)
In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postpartum depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from postpartum depression and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss. As Teresa grapples with her fears and anxieties and grasps at potential remedies, coping mechanisms, and her mother's Chinese elixirs, we come to understand one woman's battle against the cruel dynamics of postpartum depression.
There There by Tommy Orange (2018)
This novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. They converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow and together this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.
✏️ Resources for wonderful writers
My Instagram feed shared a couple of upcoming book festivals on both sides of the pond.
Milton Keynes Literary Festival, April 9-12, 2026. “A fabulous festival of books, words, writers, and ideas.”
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, University of Southern California, April 18-19, 2026. “Many stories. One weekend.”
👣 My moseying
This is the year that Staring into the Sunwill be published. It’s nearly ready to go to print. I finally finished the endnotes and the acknowledgments. Professor emeritus Robert G. Lee of Brown University wrote an afterword that places Joe Shoong’s story in historical context. Ten16 Press is publishing the paperback and ebook in May 2026. Mercury Calling will produce the audio book.It’s full speed ahead with marketing now!
🎙️ Interview with Teresa Wong
I came across Teresa Wong when fellow 1% for the Planet business member Tinu Mathur of Mathur & Co gave me All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey.
Teresa Wong is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet, both longlisted for CBC Canada Reads and finalists for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. All Our Ordinary Stories received two Alberta Literary Awards and was also a finalist for the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award in nonfiction. Her comics and writing have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and The Walrus. She teaches graphic narrative through Gotham Writers Workshop and was also the 2021–22 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary.
Books and authors mentioned:
Raina Telgemeier wrote “How Do You Make a Graphic Novel (and, Why Do They Take So Long?)”
Will There Ever Be Another You and Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
La Mennulara by Simonetta Agnello Hornby and Massimo Fenati
Teresa can be found on Instagram @by_teresawong and at her website byteresawong.com.
Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.
📙 Where to find my writing
Staring into the Sun in May 2026, published by Ten16 Press in paperback and ebook, audio produced by Mercury Calling.
"Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK
“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK
“His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UK
Find out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.
Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.
You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!
Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.
