Sarah Kanowski

So at this point, you were now living with a man who wasn't your husband.

You were drinking, you'd discovered red wine was okay, even the occasional cigarette.

Both very bad.

Not saying your daily prayers.

No.

Were you thinking of yourself as a Baha'i?

Was that something that you avoided discussing with your family or how did it play out with your mum and dad and extended family?

Did he get your mum to lay off you with the wedding plans?

She'd encouraged you back when you were at high school to be a teacher like her.

But in your heart of hearts, Sita, what did you always kind of feel your vocation was?

But you did become one and are still a teacher.

Yes.

And my hunch is you're probably a really great teacher.

Well, alongside your teaching, you've become a writer that you'd imagined yourself being from this young age.

This memoir that you published a few years ago and now a novel called In a Common Hour, which is set in a high school.

So this is kind of marrying these two parts of you, Sita.

What bits of your experience as a teacher have found their ways into the novel?

Can you tell me about the role that a poem by Mary Oliver played in one of your English classes?

Well, you know, just like some Beatles fans have Ringo as their favourite.

Clearly some English students, Sita, despite your protestations, you must have made quite an impact.