Trauma
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Why We May Doubt Our Memories of Childhood Trauma
When I was growing up in my mother’s large, tightly-knit extended family, I was subjected to sexual abuse. Mother warned me not to tell anyone what was happening to me. Instead, she made up a story — a tale of a child nurtured and cared for by a kind, loving family — that she instructed… Continue reading
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The Trouble with Writing about an Abusive Parent
If you had to sum up your relationship with one of your parents in a few words, what would you say? I struggle to find a way to convey my childhood experiences with my mother quickly and clearly, so that you, my reader, will have a sense of what happened to me. Where is the… Continue reading
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It Happened to Me; It Happens to Others
Shortly after my poetry chapbook, Falling: A Memoir in Verse, was published, I was asked by the university where I taught at the time to give a reading on our campus. I write about difficult subjects. My instincts prod me to face experiences from my past that cause me the most discomfort and to write… Continue reading
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Quicksand
Miss Bell tells me to stand up. She’s the first-grade Sunday school teacher at Tuckahoe Presbyterian. She says she’s sending me to Mrs. Platt’s office. Mrs. Platt is the education director, the closest thing the church has to a school principal. I am six years old, and I am in trouble for lying. Every Sunday,… Continue reading
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Let’s Legitimize Personal Nonfiction
Several years ago, I attended a week-long writers’ conference on a university campus during which participants were divided into workshop groups based on genre, theme, or focus. I was in the group of memoirists whose workshop was titled Writing through and about Trauma. We were eight women who had survived various kinds of childhood and… Continue reading
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What If Your Mother Tells You Not To?
I first read Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir The Woman Warrior when I was a graduate student. At that time, something important struck me about Kingston’s message. The first chapter opens with the words of the author’s mother: “You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you.” Immediately following these words, Kingston reveals… Continue reading
Do you write about yourself and your experiences? Do you write about traumatic events in your life? Or, do you struggle to find time and motivation to write?
If so, this blog is for you.
Person on the Page 