Jo's Boys: A Little Women Podcast

And then they realized: They were no longer little girls. They were little women.

Joining us for the final episode of the podcast are Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo. Rey and Bre are the author-illustrator team behind Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, a graphic novel adaptation of Little Women. Rey is also the New York Times bestselling author of many other books, including the award-winning Free Lunch. Bre has illustrated a number of graphic novels and comics, including most recently The Dog Knight.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

Wedding march or funeral dirge? We're joined to discuss the penultimate (and Peyton's least-favorite) chapter of Little Women by film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay. Willow is a film critic for publications like The Village Voice, Roger Ebert, Vulture, Little White Lies, Cleo Journal, MUBI Notebook, and many, many more. She has done freelance work with Netflix and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Most recently, she co-authored the book Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: An Examination of Trans Film Images in Cinema. It’s due out on July 9, 2024, and it’s available for pre-order now.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

We're joined today by Claire Forrest, the award-winning author of Where You See Yourself, to chat all about the two youngest members of the March family -- well, the Brooke family. It's perhaps the most heterosexual chapter of this book to date, but we soldier on, and we also chat about Claire's outstanding debut novel and her publishing journey as a woman with cerebral palsy. 

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

Amy and Laurie play the newlywed game, smear the Irish, and invent Reaganomics. What a whirlwind! With us to discuss everyone's favourite (?) femme4femme couple are sister duo Mel and Teghan Hammond, authors of the forthcoming novel Lucy Uncensored. The novel stars a trans theatre nerd named Lucy who faces challenges when her school board bans her queer adaptation of “The Tempest.” Mel also worked as an editor at American Girl for several years, where she wrote award-winning and acclaimed books on pets, body image, and loving the earth.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

Jo falls asleep fantasizing about becoming a literary spinster with a pen for a spouse. What follows had better be a dream sequence. Here to heap vials of wrath on the head of one Lou Alcott is legendary Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith. Dr. Smith is the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. She was the president of the Emily Dickinson International Society and the coordinator and executive editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives at the University of Virginia. She is the editor and writer of countless works on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, and the film Wild Nights with Emily is largely based on her scholarship, as is the bevy of Emisue fanfiction on AO3.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

In the wake of her sister's death, Jo decides to take up Beth's mantle and become the angel of the house. When that doesn't work, she heads over to Meg's place to hear the pitch for motherhood. When that doesn't work, she wonders if she made a mistake turning down Laurie's proposal. (Little does she know that Laurie and Amy are presently boning down in a rowboat in the Alps.) Whose path will she choose: Beth's, Meg's, or Amy's? Or is there another, weirder fourth option involving a verbally abusive German professor? 

Here to track Jo's Career Day journey with us is Christine Jacobson! Christine is the associate curator of modern books and manuscripts at Houghton Library, Harvard University’s rare book and manuscript library. She helps to steward, develop, interpret, and teach from the collections from 1800 through the present day, including the archives of one Louisa May Alcott. She holds a bachelor of arts in political science and Russian studies from Stetson University, a master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from Harvard University, and a master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons University.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

This week, Amy and Laurie consummate their love in a rowboat. Their romance has mystified readers and scholars for over a hundred years, but here, today, right now, award-winning author Torrey Peters will help us get to the bottom of it. (Spoiler alert: Laurie is the bottom.)

Torrey is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut Novel. It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Gotham Book Prize. It was also a finalist for the Women’s Prize, and more than twenty publications named it one of the best books of 2021. Her next book, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, is forthcoming. She rides a pink motorcycle, and she splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

As we mourn our dear, sweet Beth, we sit down with author and journalist D.L. Mayfield to discuss what her story means. Why does Alcott portray Beth as "a little saint" and "the angel of the house?" What message is she sending? Is it anything like the messages little girls hear in high-control evangelical Christianity? 

D.L. Mayfield is an author and journalist who writes about neurodivergence and healing from high-control religion. They’ve written three books, including Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day’s Radical Vision and its Challenge for our Times. They also write a newsletter called Healing is my Special Interest and they co-host This is the Bad Place, a re-cap podcast on The Good Place, with their partner, Krispin Mayfield. Right now, they’re working on a book about evangelical parenting methods.

Memorial Fund for Ryan Carson, partner of friend and former guest Claudia Morales: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ryan-carson 

Peyton's Speech at Celebrating Louisa May Alcott 2023, Sunday, November 26 at 3:00 PM EST: https://tinyurl.com/LouAlcott23 

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

Good night, sweet Beth, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Here to mourn the most meek and mild of the March sisters is disability scholar Saul Leslie, a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool who studies portrayals of disability in 20th century literature. Is there anything to admire about Alcott's depiction of this poor #invalid? Does she tick every box of hurtful disability tropes? Is she nonetheless an icon? We mention it all.

Saul has worked in higher education as a disability supervisor and a disability rights campaigner. He also works with Penguin Random House to assist disabled novelists with their writing. And his fiction has been published by Bloomsbury and Liverpool University Press, and his remarks on disability and literature have appeared in publications such as the Times Literary Supplement.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

As things heat up between Amy and Laurie, we're joined by Alena Smith, creator and showrunner of Dickinson, a television show for the exact demographic of this podcast. Like, have you ever wept openly at a Mitski concert? Can you not shut up about how every 19th century literary figure was part of the #RainbowCommunity? Do you have feelings for Chloe Fineman despite her associations with Scientology? Dickinson is for you, and this episode is for you. Enjoy listening to Peyton and Alena pass the same brain cell back and forth for an hour.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith. Follow us on Instagram at @josboyspod.