Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Deesha and Kiese on Writing About Parents, Forgiveness, and Grief
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Deesha and Kiese on Writing About Parents, Forgiveness, and Grief
Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon discuss the complicated process of writing about family — specifically parents. They talk about the ways parents fail, how they disappoint, but why it is important, and necessary when writing about family and those we love, to give them grace, and allow them the room to make mistakes. They ask the question, What do we owe to those we write about? And they call for writers to be guided, first and foremost, by love.
Deesha and Kiese talk about their own relationships with their parents, the processing and tending to those relationships, and how they moved through feelings of shame and anger while working through layers of grief.
Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned
Heavy (Kiese Laymon)
“Snap” (Deesha Philyaw, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021)
“How Can You Be Mad At Someone Who’s Dying Of Cancer?” (Deesha Philyaw, Full Grown People 2015)
“Whiting” (Deesha Philyaw, Short Reads 2023)
“These Are Your Memories” (Kiese’s mother’s letter, 2018)
“If We Can Soar: What Birmingham Roller Pigeons Offer the Men of South Central” (Shanna B. Tiayon, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021)
More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw)
Heavy (Kiese Laymon)
Long Division (Kiese Laymon)
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon)
Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton)
Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.
Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon
Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong
Associate Producer: Marina Leigh
Episode Editor: Kelly Araja
Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave
Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa
Audience Director: Katie Johnston
Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain
Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Ursa Story Company
4.8
112112 ratings
Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon discuss the complicated process of writing about family — specifically parents. They talk about the ways parents fail, how they disappoint, but why it is important, and necessary when writing about family and those we love, to give them grace, and allow them the room to make mistakes. They ask the question, What do we owe to those we write about? And they call for writers to be guided, first and foremost, by love.
Deesha and Kiese talk about their own relationships with their parents, the processing and tending to those relationships, and how they moved through feelings of shame and anger while working through layers of grief.
Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned
Heavy (Kiese Laymon)
“Snap” (Deesha Philyaw, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021)
“How Can You Be Mad At Someone Who’s Dying Of Cancer?” (Deesha Philyaw, Full Grown People 2015)
“Whiting” (Deesha Philyaw, Short Reads 2023)
“These Are Your Memories” (Kiese’s mother’s letter, 2018)
“If We Can Soar: What Birmingham Roller Pigeons Offer the Men of South Central” (Shanna B. Tiayon, Pipe Wrench Magazine 2021)
More from Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (Deesha Philyaw)
Heavy (Kiese Laymon)
Long Division (Kiese Laymon)
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays (Kiese Laymon)
Ursa Short Fiction podcast (Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton)
Produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon.
Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Kiese Laymon
Show Producers: Dawnie Walton & Mark Armstrong
Associate Producer: Marina Leigh
Episode Editor: Kelly Araja
Reckon Editor In Chief: R.L. Nave
Reckon Deputy Editor: Michelle Zenarosa
Audience Director: Katie Johnston
Creative Strategist: Abbey Crain
Sr. Social Producer: Sid Espinosa
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Reckon True Stories
View all
Radiolab
43,969 Listeners
This American Life
90,949 Listeners
Fresh Air
38,189 Listeners
Selected Shorts
2,831 Listeners
The New Yorker: Fiction
3,322 Listeners
The Moth
27,325 Listeners
Reveal
8,266 Listeners
Hidden Brain
43,483 Listeners
The New Yorker Radio Hour
6,670 Listeners
The Daily
111,917 Listeners
This is Love
9,322 Listeners
The Last Archive
1,832 Listeners
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
12,348 Listeners
The Ezra Klein Show
15,335 Listeners
Ursa Short Fiction
218 Listeners
What Now? with Trevor Noah
4,094 Listeners
The Business of Publishing
0 Listeners