Carvell Wallace on Changing Perspective

HydraGTMarch 12, 2025

0 24 1 minute read

This is Thresholds, a series of conversations with writers about experiences that completely turned them upside down, disoriented them in their lives, changed them, and changed how and why they wanted to write. Hosted by Jordan Kisner, author of the essay collection Thin Places. Thresholds is a co-production between Black Mountain Institute and Literary Hub

This week, we’re sharing a live conversation between Jordan and Carvell Wallace, recorded last year at P&T Knitwear in New York. They talk about his new memoir, Another Word for Love, a moment of real peril from his childhood, and the long process that followed for him of learning to embrace vulnerability, connection, and his own writing voice.

Carvell Wallace: I do think that the book suggests that not knowing what’s going on is not necessarily a problem, and in fact it’s what’s going to be happening most of your life. You can be fully cared for and able to care, and also not know what the fuck is going on. Both those things can be true. Recognizing that both those things can coexist can be one path to coming into right relation with the world around you.

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Carvell Wallace is a writer and podcaster who has contributed to The New Yorker, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Pitchfork, MTV News, and Al Jazeera. His debut memoir, Another Word For Love (MCD, 2024), explores his life, identity, and love through stories of family, friendship, and culture and is a 2024 Kirkus Finalist in Nonfiction. He was a 2019 Peabody Award nominee, a 2022 National Magazine Award Finalist, a 2023 winner of the Mosaic Prize in Journalism, and a 2025 UCross Fellow. He lives in Oakland.

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For more Thresholds, visit us at thisisthresholds.com. Original music by Lora-Faye Åshuvud.

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HydraGTMarch 12, 2025

0 24 1 minute read