Our second memoir for Spring 2023 Book Club is Somebody’s Daughter (Flatiron Books, 2021) by Ashley C. Ford. Please join us to discuss this New York Times’ moving bestseller about “a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.”

“Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.”

— publisher’s description

Ashley C. 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. Ford has written or guest-edited for The Guardian, ELLE Magazine, BuzzFeed, OUT Magazine, Slate, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, Allure, Marie Claire, The New York Times, Netflix Queue, Domino, Cup of Jo, and various other web and print publications. She has also developed special projects for companies like Medium.Com, Mailchimp Presents, Condé Nast Entertainment, and MasterCard. She has taught creative nonfiction at The New School in Manhattan, served as Ball State University’s Writer-In-Residence, and taught the Creative NonFiction Workshop at Butler University.

Where: 305 Russell

Spring Book Club is co-sponsored by the Graduate Student Writing Center and meets once a month on Tuesdays, 12-1pm. The first 5 students to register will receive a free copy! Bring your lunch or enjoy a light snack with us!

Upcoming:

The Last Girl, by Nadia Murad, Tuesday, 4/16

Registration is required