Called to investigate, three authors reflect on the body

Kendra Hanna

December 24, 2021 / 10:28 am

caption: Authors Grace Talusan, Kristen Millares Young, and Michelle Bowdler act as our guides through discussions of pain, self-care, and a culture that uses shame to keep women in line.

This episode of Speakers Forum is a hard but crucial conversation. Authors Grace Talusan, Kristen Millares Young, and Michelle Bowdler act as our guides through discussions of pain, self-care, and a culture that uses shame to keep women in line.

This conversation is wide ranging, touching on health and the internal experiences of having a body, as well as the external forces and cruelty that can impact the body. Our three speakers search for ways to move past doubt and silence to find joy in self-ownership.

In writing about these experiences that I’m not supposed to write about, including naming parts of the body I’m not supposed to name, I found a kind of power there. Grace Talusan

Kristen Millares Young is a journalist and essayist. Her debut novel Subduction came out in 2020 and received an Independent Book Publisher award. She also edited the creative nonfiction collection Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature.

Grace Talusan is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University. Her 2019 memoir, The Body Papers, won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. In it, she touches on her early life, surviving both abuse and later health struggles.

Michelle Bowdler has worked in public health for decades. In 2020, her book Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto was longlisted for a national book award.

Elliot Bay Book Company presented this conversation on November 9th, 2021.

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