On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Tanya Moseley.
My guest today, award winning writer Carvel Wallace, didn't begin writing until he was 40 years old.
It started with an impassioned Facebook post and pretty quickly turned into a full fledged career, writing profiles of musicians and athletes and politicians for big name publications like the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and the New Yorker.
His ability to delve into the interior lives of his subjects even caught the eye of NBA star Andre Iguodela, who tapped Wallace to co write the 6th man, which chronicles Iguodella's basketball career.
Now Carvel Wallace is delving into his own life.
Another word for love is the name of his new memoir, and it starts with Wallis at seven years old, when he and his mother were unhoused for a year, bouncing from place to place, sometimes sleeping in their car.
That instability would become a hallmark of Wallace's life, growing up with and without his mother in western Pennsylvania and DC and Los Angeles.
He chronicles that experience as well as his addictions, becoming a parent and coming into his own as a queer black man.
Carvel Wallace, welcome to Fresh Air.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I want to start off by reading an excerpt from your book, which sets the stage for why you write.
Can I have you read just a little bit of it?
I write about beautiful things because I have learned to love things that I don't like.