Ashley C. Ford on life with incarcerated dad

What does it do to a person and their family when they lose someone important to them to prison?

That’s the subject of the new memoir by Ashley C. Ford. “Somebody’s Daughter” tells the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.

“I wrote the book that I desperately wanted to read or to find on a library shelf when I was a child.” – Ashley C. Ford, author of “Somebody’s Daughter”

Ford will appear this weekend at the Midwest Literary Walk in Chelsea, Michigan, sponsored by the Chelsea District Library. She will appear this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Chelsea First United Methodist Church.

Listen: Author Ashley C. Ford talks about her book “Somebody’s Daughter.”

“My process of forgiving my dad actually went a bit backwards in terms of how we usually think of forgiveness,” says Ford. “It has a lot more to do with me giving up the idea that it was ever going to be different.”

Ford says she hopes her book will be a comfort and a source of empowerment for others who are in similar situations.

“I wrote the book that I desperately wanted to read or to find on a library shelf when I was a child,” says Ford. “Kids of the incarcerated spend a lot of time thinking we’re the only ones.”

She says when others in her situation are willing to talk about it openly, it “makes me feel less alone.”

You can also hear Stephen Henderson’s conversations with Midwest Literary Walk authors Billy Collins and Don Winslow.