Healing in the Past and Present with Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Ashley sits down with Dolen Perkins-Valdez to talk about her third novel, Take My Hand. This thoughtful conversation includes naming the story, the power of the main character’s name, writing about Black girls, and the Relf sisters’ case that inspired the novel’s story about the sterilization of Black girls.
Content warning: abortion, forced sterilization, racism, depression

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This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

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Renee Powers

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Renee Powers founded Feminist Book Club in 2018 to provide a space for intersectional feminists to learn, grow, and connect. When not reading or running the biz, you can find her drinking coffee and trying unsuccessfully to teach her retired racing greyhound how to fetch. Favorite genres: feminist thrillers, contemporary literary fiction, short stories, and anything that might be described as "irreverent"