No Man's Land: Diane Glancy on Identity, Voicelessness, and Living in the In-Between

The Table Audio w/ Evan Rosa

On living and finding meaning in the "in-between"—featuring Diane Glancy, an American poet, author, and playwright of Cherokee descent on embracing liminality.

What would it feel like to live constantly in the "in-between"—to feel caught in the margins, to be stuck on the causeway, at the threshold, held in the foyer, neither here nor there? There is ambiguity and disorientation in the liminal space, and it's a more common experience than you might think.

Diane Glancy, an American poet, author, and playwright of Cherokee descent has come to embrace this experience of liminality. She gathers voices in her novels and poems, sometimes completely nameless, forgotten or silenced by history. Her embrace reveals a commitment to finding meaning in holiness, even in the vague, unnoticed margins, in the negative space. Join us as we explore with Diane the meaning that lies in the in-between.

Show Notes

• 3:35—Diane’s shares her “Origin story”
• 4:20—Diane introduces her experience of adjacency throughout her journey
• 5:15—Diane shares an early Cherokee creation story
• 7:45—Evan asks Diane about the spiritual and cultural background of her upbringing
• 9:15—Diane elaborates on adjacency as a Christian and a Native American woman and an academic
• 11:50—Evan asks Diane about how she fills in the spaces of her own adjancency
• 12:22—Diane mentions her book, In-Between Places
• 12:30—Evan asks Diane what she means by “liminality” and “adjancency”
• 14:25—Diane shares her experience of liminality in her own divorce
• 15:35—Evan asks Diane about her perception of space, but figurative and physical
• 17:40—Diane elaborates on her experience of “land”
• 17:58—Location of pull quote from beginning
• 18:45—Evan invites listeners to check out other Table content at https://cct.biola.edu/the-table/
• 19:54—Diane introduces us to Ada Blackjack
• 21:40—Evan draws connections between poetry, liminality, and the life of faith
• 22:45—Diane picks up Ada’s story again
• 24:56—Evan brings up poet Scott Cairns as a helpful conversation partner, and speaks about Diane’s openness to empty space.
• 25:52—Diane reads her poem "Asylum in the Grasslands"
• 27:35—Diane reflects on "Asylum in the Grasslands" and introduces her study on Job
• 28:40—Diane addresses the loveliness of suffering
• 30:00—Evan introduces the book of Job and its themes
• 30:27—Diane expands on her new work on Job
• 32:10—Evan introduces the further story of Job’s wife and Glancy’s recent interest in her

Credits

• The Table is sponsored by generous grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Blankemeyer Foundation
• Theme music is by The Brilliance
• Production and engineering by The Narrativo Group
• Edited and mixed by TJ Hester
• Production Assistance by Laura Crane
• Special thanks to Diane Glancy
• Evan Rosa on Twitter
• CCT on Twitter

Quotes from Diane Glancy

• "The liminal and the multivalent and the adjacency is always where I have found my being. Through writing, I have made it substance. There's one word. Then you put down another word. Then you put down another word. Pretty soon, it's solid ground."
• "It just comes. It's like a muscle or something that you use. You have a certain calling. Mine was to suffering and to the importance of the past, and to give historical voices to those that did not have a chance to speak."