In this mini episode of The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with author Toni Jensen, author of Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land (Ballantine Books; Penguin Random House).
Toni grew up around guns: As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she’s had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of Indigenous women, on Indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten. In Carry, Toni maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America.
Toni will be giving a reading in collaboration with the University of Montana’s Creative Writing Program on April 12, 2024, at the Missoula Art Museum. The event begins at 5:30PM; doors at 5PM. For more information, go to missoulaartmuseum.org.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity and time; Lauren’s full conversation with Toni will be posted here shortly.
About Toni:
Toni Jensen’s Carry is a memoir-in-essays about gun violence, land, and Indigenous women’s lives. An NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient in 2020, Toni’s essays have appeared in Orion, Catapult and Ecotone. She is also the author of the short story collection From the Hilltop. She is currently the James and Lois Welch Distinguished Visiting Native American Writer at the University of Montana. She is Métis.
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The Write Question team for this TWQ Mini episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, sound engineer.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
