Diamond Forde reveals the genesis of ‘The Book of Alice’

Diamond Forde is the award-winning author of “The Book of Alice.” Her debut collection, “Mother Body,” won the 2019 Saturnalia Poetry Prize, and her work has appeared in Poetry magazine, Boston Review, Great River Review and elsewhere. An assistant professor at North Carolina State University, Forde holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and a PhD in creative writing from Florida State University.

Q. Please tell readers about your new book.

“The Book of Alice” is my attempt to mourn my grandmother about a decade too late; a resurrection story told in lyric, “The Book of Alice” tells my grandmother’s journey from childhood through adulthood, from the Jim Crow-era South to the great migration North, raising a family of eight children, through three marriages, and the inevitable journeys of loss diasporic to so many Black experiences across America.

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

Told through an apocryphal approach to the King James Bible — the only poetry my grandmother knew and loved— this book is my attempt to reach beyond death and the systemic erasures of empire to deepen my understanding of her, her legacy, and the inheritances — both good and bad — that she has left behind.

“The Book of Alice” is a conversation around family, archive, generational trauma, identity, and mythmaking as a means of grieving who we leave behind and understanding who we are and what we hope to accomplish.

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

Sharon Creech’s “Absolutely Normal Chaos” — it’s told through an epistolary format, where the main character, Mary Lou, struggles with the awkward dynamics of family, friends, and first love, and it found me at the right moment when all of those challenges felt too real and for at least two years after I kept my own journal, inspired by the main character and her journey.

Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind?

“Bestiary” by Donika Kelly — it was the first time I read a book that felt like standing naked in the mirror; it had the uncanny ability to wade past the boundaries of time to see not only who I was, but who I had been, and who I wanted to be. Kelly’s debut romps with the animal, real and imagined, exploring love and wounding through the animal-nature of our feelings, the precarious past and present of our human lives.

SEE ALSO: How ‘Black-Owned’ explores the history of Black bookstores in America

Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?

Audiobooks are my favorite to listen to on long car rides or while completing household chores; something to turn to in order to keep my mind busy when my hands aren’t free, when I’m alone but want good company—that’s what I love about a good audiobook, that it feels like overhearing the juiciest gossip.

One of my favorite narrators right now is January LaVoy. I first heard her read in my audiobook copy of Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones,” and she’s an incredible talent, able to create and recreate distinct character voices and develop an experience that accents rather than disrupts the book.

I’ve listened to three other audiobooks just because she was reading them, and I cannot recommend her enough.

Q. Is there a topic you’ll always read about?

Black women. I love finding out about our history, our stories. I love discovering our voices. I love reading about Black women from scholarly perspectives, through poems and fiction. I love historical video essays about the experiences of Black women in our past, and I love thinking about the ways that Black women have been challenged to navigate the intangible nature of womanhood, to overcome the challenges to tell our own stories, and the beauty of our fantastical imaginings to craft our own futures.

SEE ALSO: Where’s the nearest bookstore? See our map of 80+ SoCal bookshops

Q. What do you look for in a book? 

I want a book to change and challenge the way that I look at the world, and to do that, a book must first pay attention to the language we use to shape our world.

English is the language of economy; we privilege concision, preciseness, and business, but those goals make it easy to forget the wealth of hidden depth, connotation, and etymology that exists behind the language we take for granted.

Good writing lets me take nothing for granted. I want to read a book that makes me question a word so deeply I remember that book every time that word slips from my mouth. I want my relationship with language to change; only then can a book change me.