I interviewed Jesmyn Ward recently for Guernica. Can’t even describe the thrill! I think everyone should read her memoir THE MEN WE REAPED, but I also feel that way about SALVAGE THE BONES, her new novel SING, UNBURIED, SING and her essay collection THE FIRE THIS TIME. One of the craft questions I asked her…
Blog
In Revision
I had this dream the other night I was walking in a Delta forest. The sun was shining golden green. The birds were singing. All around me frogs croaked. I walked down to the brake. Trash was floating up against the knees of the cypress. I looked down at my feet. An iPad was…
Manifesto 2017, #WritersResist- Athens,GA
I wrote and delivered the following manifesto for the #WritersResist event at Avid Bookshop. I also read it at the Athens, GA Women’s March. We must speak out. Manifesto 2017 We are gathered here because we dream. Like many of you, I grew up believing in this dream. I grew up believing in the dream…
#WritersResist: Silence- Athens, GA
Because our democracy is at risk, a group from Athens is joining with writers throughout the nation to focus attention to the ideals of a free, just, and democratic society for all on Sunday, January 15, Martin Luther King’s birthday. More about national events can be found here. Here in Athens, we will have a…
Suffer the Little Children: Mike Pence’s Disturbing Connections to the Teen Treatment Industry
When I was fifteen, my parents sent me to Escuela Caribe, a fundamentalist Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. At this school students were forced to exercise for punishment, sometimes until they vomited or collapsed from exhaustion. Students were beaten with a leather strap for minor infractions. Staff members would slam students into…
Process
Back in high school, back before Escuela Caribe, I liked to take pictures. I’d spend hours cutting out scraps of images and arranging them on cardstock, making collages from the discards. This summer I finished the final draft of Unreformed. The narrative wasn’t working so I tried something different- I cut the entire book into pieces,…
The Horrifying Reality of Teen Rehab Centers
A few weeks ago Cracked editors Jack O’Brian and Robert Evans interviewed one of my all time heroes, Maia Szalavitz. Szalavitz wrote Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, the most comprehensive exploration of the teen treatment industry out there. They also interviewed Sarah Cummins, a former student of a…
The Teen Treatment Con Continues…
The craziest thing for me about the teen treatment industry is how long this con has gone on. I mean, I became a statistic 26 years ago. In 2004 (that’s 12 years ago for you English majors), the National Institute of Health released a statement recommending residential care as a treatment of last resort. And in 2007, the…
To Hell and Back: the Rise and Fall of New Horizons Youth Ministries
Last week NUVO, Indianapolis’ alternative weekly, published the first in a series of articles exposing the rise and fall of the fundamentalist boot camp I attended, New Horizons Youth Ministries. Alumni Theresa Rosado writes that NHYM had its license revoked in 2009 for failing to comply with state policies. They did not provide background checks for sex offenders. They…
Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs for Teens
One of the most maddening things about being a product of the dysfunctional family with means complex is knowing that the abuse is still happening. That despite the Congressional reports, despite books like Julia Scheeres’ Jesus Land, or Maia Szalavitz’s Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, or Kate Logan’s documentary…