Thresholds

Jordan talks with Ashley C. Ford (author of the memoir Somebody's Daughter) about how writing made her into more of herself, about the systems that we live under, and about finding joy in new community.

MENTIONED:

• Dr. Jill Christman, professor at Ball State
• paying off lunch debts (check out All for Lunch!)
• Onsite Workshops in Tennessee

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK.

She was also the host of the first season of Audible's literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine's Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York's New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019)

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It’s the end of our ‘Inheritance' capsule of episodes!

MENTIONED:

• Marie-Helene Bertino shares her summer reading plans (hint: they involve Ursula K. Le Guin)
• Jordan and Drew answer some more listener questions, and Jordan describes the horror of hearing her own voice over and over again
• updates about cool Thresholds alums like Ryka Aoki, Ed Yong, Fernanda Melchor, Sarah Manguso, and Fariha Roisin
• a flashback to Jordan's conversation with Ocean Vuong

We'll be back with our next capsule starting in July!

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Jordan talks with Jhumpa Lahiri about her new collection of essays (Translating Myself and Others), how Ovid helped her navigate her mother’s death, and how translating her own new story collection is an exciting way to edit.

MENTIONED:

• the Roman god Janus
• the novels of Domenico Starnone (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri)
• Ovid's Metamorphoses
• "je est un autre" -- Arthur Rimbaud

Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of Translating Myself and Others as well as four works of fiction including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland; and another work of nonfiction, In Other Words. She has received numerous awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award; the PEN/Malamud Award; the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the Premio Gregor von Rezzori; the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature; a 2014 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama; and the Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia. She is the editor of The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories and has translated three novels by Domenico Starnone into English. She teaches creative writing and literary translation at Princeton University, where she is director of the Program in Creative Writing.

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Jordan talks with Elissa Washuta (White Magic) about the transformative nature of narrative, avoiding vs. thinking about painful things, why she takes more notes, and the power of a good video game.

MENTIONED:

• Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return
• Dorrie the Little Witch by Patricia Coombs
• The Craft
• Red Dead Redemption 2

Elissa Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a nonfiction writer. She is the author of White Magic, My Body Is a Book of Rules, and Starvation Mode. With Theresa Warburton, she is co-editor of the anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, Artist Trust, 4Culture, and Potlatch Fund. Elissa is an assistant professor of creative writing at the Ohio State University.

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Jordan talks with Jessamine Chan about the ways having a kid changed her writing, about the difficulties mothers face in America, and about the one very good day of writing that led to The School for Good Mothers.

MENTIONED:

• "Where is Your Mother?" by Rachel Aviv (The New Yorker)
• Cost of Living by Emily Maloney
• SCOTUS draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
• The Ragdale Foundation

Jessamine Chan's debut novel is The School for Good Mothers, an instant New York Times bestseller. Her short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Brown University. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, Jentel, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, VCCA, and Ragdale. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.

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Jordan talks with Morgan Talty in advance of his debut story collection about moms, storytelling, writing from a teen point of view, and the villain of colonialism.

MENTIONED:

• The Lowering Days by Gregory Brown
• "The Blessing Tobacco"
• The Penobscot Indian Nation
• Superstore

Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He received his BA in Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and his MFA in fiction from Stonecoast’s low-residency program. His story collection Night of the Living Rez is forthcoming from Tin House Books (2022), and his work has appeared in Granta, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, and elsewhere. A winner of the 2021 Narrative Prize, Talty’s work has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts (2022). Talty teaches courses in both English and Native American Studies, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing. Talty is also a Prose Editor at The Massachusetts Review. He lives in Levant, Maine.

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Jordan talks to Stephanie Foo about Complex PTSD, what it takes to accept and understand a diagnosis, and the transformative power of Google Doc Therapy.

MENTIONED:

* Brooklyn Botanic Garden

* Dr. Jacob Ham

* Hershey's Cookies'n'Cream

* Google Docs

Stephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer, most recently for This American Life. Her debut memoir is What My Bones Know and her work has aired on Snap Judgment, Reply All, 99% Invisible, and Radiolab. A noted speaker and instructor, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. She lives in New York City with her husband.

**Our new show art is from Lauraly Grossman!**

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It’s the end of our ‘The World Around Us' capsule of episodes!

MENTIONED:

• Jordan calls up Ross Gay to talk about his garden and something called a goumi
• an outtake from our convo with adrienne maree brown, on the power of expressing the thing that needed to be expressed
• updates about cool Thresholds alums like Alex Kleeman, Melissa Febos, Margo Jefferson, and Susan Orlean
• some book recommendations from Typo's dad, Ed Yong
• our audio engineer/composer Lora-Faye Åshuvud whips up a sonic treat just for you

We'll be back with our next capsule starting 5/18!

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Jordan talks with Jeff VanderMeer about the process of re-wilding his backyard, his initial obsession with uprooting air potatoes, learning to see more of the natural world, and where his fiction is headed next.

MENTIONED:

Air potatoes

The Atlanta Botanical Garden

Florida House Representative Anna Eskamani

"How to Rewild Your Balcony" from Esquire

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Hummingbird Salamander, Dead Astronauts, Borne, The Ambergris Trilogy, and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman. VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cats, plants, and bird feeders.

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Now celebrating its fifth season, Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by 2021 KCRW Radio Race winner Jude Brewer, Storybound presents the voices of today’s best writers, like Mitchell S. Jackson, Tamara Winfrey-Harris, and Clint Smith, reading accomplished works of fiction and non-fiction. You’ll also hear original music specially composed for the respective text. Needless to say, it’s an immersive storytelling experience.

The episode we’re sharing today features Danté Stewart reading from Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle — his stirring account of his religious experience and of his grappling with the racism endemic in history. It’s a story of difficult turning points and sometimes painful epiphanies that’s perfect for Thresholds listeners. 

If you enjoy what you hear, make sure to follow Storybound (for free) wherever you get your podcasts.

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