Strangers In The Province Of Joy: A Conversation With Mary Fontana

This Quoircast podcast episode is brought to you by Peelakiiyankwi: Processing Liberation Through an Indigenous American Lens by Ryan Remington. Published by Quoir and available now In this episode we chat with Mary Fontana Mary Fontana is the author of Strangers in the Province of Joy: Practicing Radical Hospitality on the US-Mexico Border, a narrative history of the migrant house of hospitality where she has volunteered for the past two decades, published in May 2026 by Orbis Books. Her writing has appeared in America, BorderLore, Sojourners, National Catholic Reporter, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, SWIMM, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the 2025 Richard J. Margolis Award for social journalism, and her manuscript Bright Extinction was a finalist for the 2026 Catamaran Poetry Prize. She trained as a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley and did infectious disease research for a decade before turning to writing full-time. She now lives in Seattle with her husband and two children. You can connect with Mary on: Instagram. BlueSky You can find all things Mary Fontana related on her website You can purchase Strangers in the Province of Joy: Practicing Radical Hospitality on the US - Mexico Border at Bookshop.org You can connect with This Is Not Church on: Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube Also check out our Biolink for all things This Is Not Church related Please like and follow our Quoircast Partners: Heretic Happy Hour Messy Spirituality Apostates Anonymous Second Cup with Keith The Church Needs Therapy Ideas Digest Snarky Faith Podcast Wild Olive Deadly Faith Spirituality Brew Pub Faith For The Rest Of Us Jonathan_Foster Sacred Thoughts Holy Heretics Reframing Our Stories Bros Bibles & Beer Liminal Living Love Covered Life The Social Jesus Project I Was A Teenage Fundamentalist Radical Love Live The God Squad Each episode of This Is Not Church Podcast is expertly engineered by our producer The Podcast Doctor Eric Howell. If you’re thinking of starting a podcast you need to connect with Eric! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.