The University of Wisconsin Press
Memoir / Media / Ethnic Studies
I
Hear Voices "The people who inhabit this book
are emotionally unkempt, blunt, ruthless, charming forces of
nature, and Feraca shows them to us with both eyes open and with
a generous heart. I Hear Voices belongs on a shelf with
some of the best memoirs of the last twenty or thirty years." Jean Feraca's road to self-fulfillment
has been as quirky and demanding as the characters in her incredible
memoir. A twenty-five-year veteran of public radio broadcasting,
Feraca is also a writer and a poet. She is a talk show host beloved
for her unique mixture of the humanities, poetry, and journalism,
and is the creator of the pioneering international cultural affairs
radio program Here on Earth: Radio without Borders. "A completely captivating memoir: the Voices of the title come from séances with dead family members, past marriages and beaux, listeners to Feraca's radio programs, a plurality of selves (including the current crew and some outgrown or castaway), among many others. Beautifully written, and wise, this book manages to be both tragic and funny, a combination hard to wrangle."—Diane Ackerman, author of An Alchemy of Mind and Cultivating Delight "As a poet and Wisconsin Public Radio's
"Distinguished Senior Broadcaster," Feraca knows the
power of the well-chosen word. Feraca (South from Rome ) grew
up attuned to language, with her flamboyant, "Old World
Italian patriarch" father defiantly reciting poetry to her
mother's cold criticism. Feraca's traditionally Catholic upbringing
was full of stories of "saints and virgin martyrs,"
which gave her "an enduring template of courage and heroism,"
even if they imparted a taste for suffering that left her "vulnerable
to abuse." Feraca tells stories of her dearly eccentric
brother, her demented mother, her wretched first and second marriages,
her attempt to live the monastic life, her passion for her third
husband and his taste in wine. Most remarkable, however, is her
account of that pivotal moment when she took Donald Hall's creative
writing seminar. Ignoring her disastrous marriage as she immersed
herself in writing, she was "Rapunzel, spinning straw into
gold." Blending the spiritual and the profane, Feraca is
beguiling."—Publishers Weekly "Another voice in the national dialogue
is Jean Feraca, poet, essayist and host of the National Public
Radio show, Here On Earth. I Hear Voices: A Memoir
of Love, Death and the Radio begins with a strike at the
concept of "a calling," or inspired purpose. It addresses
failed marriages and the uncertainty regarding chosen and unchosen
life pathways. Those concerns are eclipsed, however, when Feraca's
cultural affairs show spurs positive change, such as construction
of a medical clinic in the Amazon. Listen to Jean Feraca's radio program at wpr.org/hereonearth |
A paperback edition, with a new chapter and poems, is available in Fall 2011, see I Hear Voices. |
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Jean
Feraca, Wisconsin Public Radio's
Distinguished Senior Broadcaster, is host and executive producer
of Here on Earth: Radio without Borders. Feraca has received
several honors including the Nation's Discovery Award and two
Hopwood Awards. Recipient of an Ohio State and Gabriel Award
for her Women of Spirit radio series on female leaders
in the early Christian Church, she also received the National
Telemedia Council's Distinguished Media Award for her radio advocacy
of people with mental illness. She is author of three collections
of poetry: South from Rome: Il Mezzogiorno, 
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