In this episode, I reunite with Jonaki Ray (who I met in 2019 as a co-recipient of the Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award) to explore the themes of home, belonging, and the delicate dance between art and science in her poetry collection, Firefly Memories.
Part memoir and travelogue, Firefly Memories is a poignant collection that speaks to the struggles of belonging, blending beauty, food, and memory to confront hardship and heartache and redefining home and the search for safe places.
Whether you’re at home or in search of one, you’ll be inspired by Jonaki’s take on telling the truth and telling it slant.
Got any thoughts on this episode or want to suggest authors you’d like to see on the show? Send me a note here.
If you’d like to get your own copy of the book, you can do so here.
Show highlights
- From scientist to artist: Jonaki’s journey
- Verdigris: Excerpt from Firefly Memories
- The goal and complexities of creating the collection
- Juxtaposing the themes of beauty and rejection
- Blending science and art in poetry
- Telling the truth with sensitivity
- Writing about the past and the present
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About jonaki Ray
Jonaki Ray was educated in India (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur) and the USA (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). A scientist by education and training, and a software engineer (briefly) in the past, she is now a poet, writer, and editor in New Delhi, India. She is the author of Firefly Memories (Copper Coin, India) and Lessons in Bending(Sundress Publications, USA).
Jonaki was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize (Zoetic Press) and the 2018 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre) and won the First Prize in the 2017 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Contest, ESL category. She is a 2019 Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award winner and has been shortlisted for multiple other awards, including the 2019 Blue Nib Chapbook Contest, the 2018 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, and the 2021 LiveCanon Pamphlet Contest.
Her work is forthcoming and has been published in Poetry Wales, POETRY, The Rumpus, Southword Journal, So to Speak Journal, Lunch Ticket, Indian Literature (India’s National Academy of Letters), and elsewhere. To know more, visit https://jonakiray.com.
About Firefly Memories
Mixing personal and political, part memoir and part travelogue, Firefly Memories is meant to give voice to the usually voiceless—people of colour, women, children, migrants, immigrants, prisoners, and refugees. Most of all, this book is meant for all those who are looking to belong, and, ultimately, searching for a place they can call home.
Guest’s links
Follow Jonaki on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonaki_stories/
Follow Jonaki on X: https://x.com/jona_writes
Host’s links
Book a one-on-one with Lola: https://wordcaps.com/coaching/
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