New York Times Bestselling Author Ashley C. Ford

Reserve a spot today to hear writer, host, and educator Ashley C. Ford, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Somebody’s Daughter.

Cleveland Public Library is hosting an in-person and virtual event with Ford as part of our Writers & Readers series which engages authors, academics, and public figures in discussions surrounding the books and stories that have shaped their lives.

Somebody’s Daughter covers personal topics about Ford’s life as a Black queer writer; her history as a survivor of sexual assault; and her experience as a child with a father in prison. 

Attendees will receive a FREE copy of Ford’s book.

Continue the conversation after the event at a community workshop at ThirdSpace Action Lab. Learn how to thread our personal identity through our family stories as a first step toward re-weaving our personal narrative.

Please note: this event is offered as a real-time event only. Recordings will not be available or provided after the event.

Saturday, August 13, 2022 | 12:00PM
ThirdSpace Labs
1464 E 105th St #302, Cleveland

About Ashley Ford

Ashley C. Ford’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, was published by Flatiron Books in June 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio. She currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy.

Ford has written or guest-edited for ELLE Magazine, Slate, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Domino, Cup of Jo, and various other web and print publications.

About Somebody’s Daughter

Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

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