Hi friends,
Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton are back with another episode of Ursa Short Fiction, this time in conversation with Chelsea T. Hicks, author of the acclaimed new short story collection, A Calm & Normal Heart (Unnamed Press, June 2022).
Hicks is a member of the Osage Nation, and the collection, published in June 2022 by Unnamed Press, also incorporates her ancestral language of Wazhazhe ie (which translates to “Osage talk”). The collection opens with a poem in the orthography, along with the Latinized spelling and English translation.
“When you build muscle, they say, you break the muscle just a little and that is what causes it to grow. That’s what I wanted to do with the language.”
You can get the full episode summary and reading list at Lit Hub, and you can read the transcript here.
More Interviews and Stories Are On the Way – with Support from You
It’s been so wonderful to see the response to Ursa’s first audio story, William Pei Shih’s “Happy Family.” (Go check out the trailer on Instagram.) And we’re excited to keep bringing you more conversations and stories.
Our goal is to make this show sustainable for many years to come, and we want to do it with your support. If you like what we’re doing so far, join us:
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Ursa Short Fiction is proud to be a part of the Lit Hub Radio Network. If you’re a publisher or business, you can also become an Ursa sponsor. Learn more by going to ursastory.com/sponsor.
Thanks for reading and listening!
-Dawnie & Mark