50 | How to remake the world with Sarah Sentilles, author of 'Stranger Care'

James and Ashley Stay at Home

It's our 50th episode! Author Sarah Sentilles joins us to talk about her new memoir, Stanger Care. She discusses coping with unexpected loss, who counts as family, and how at heart, all of us are baby monkeys. She also shares how each of us can use our creativity to remake the world around us.

Stranger Care is a memoir of Sarah and her husband’s experience with the foster system in Idaho and the ten months they parented an infant named Coco, only to return her to her loving but vulnerable mother.

Sarah Sentilles is the author of Draw Your Weapons, Breaking Up with God, A Church of Her Own and Taught by America. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Divinity School, she lives in Idaho’s Wood River Valley. Her latest book is Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours. You can buy a copy of Stranger Care from your local bookshop, Booktopia or wherever else books are sold, and find Sarah's workshops and retreats at sarahsentilles.com.

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• Draw Your Weapons by Sarah Sentilles;
• This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson;
• The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World by Elaine Scarry;
• The Rabbits by Sophie Overett;
• Bewilderment by Richard Powers;
• 'The abortion I didn't have' by Merrit Tierce;
• A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

Ashley's Joy of Creative Writing workshop: Monday 31 January 2022, 7:45-9pm AEDT, Online via Zoom Whether you haven’t written creatively since high school or you’re the author of 12 books, this fun class will help you get your creativity flowing. Get your ticket here.

Library through the Lens: Ashley in conversation with Anna Downes: Thursday 3 February 2022, 11am AEDT, Online via ZoomJoin Ashley in conversation with international bestselling thriller author Anna Downes as she talks about her much-anticipated second novel. Free, RSVP here.

Here's what time it is Rockhampton.

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson