The Gray Edges of Blackness

Emily Bernard has offered her essays to The American Scholar since 2005, when we published “Teaching the N-Word.” She’s written a lot of essays since then, essays that prove their etymology: the French word essayer—to try. She tries on different ways of thinking about what it means to be black, or the mother of daughters adopted from Ethiopia, or married to a white man, or the American daughter of a Trinidadian father. She joins us on the podcast to sort through the questions—and some of the answers—that form the heart of her new collection, Black Is the Body.

Go beyond the episode:

• Emily Bernard’s Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine
• Read her essays in The American Scholar: “Teaching the N-Word,” “Interstates,” “Scar Tissue,” and a bonus from our archives about friendship, “Fired.”

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.

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Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.