[Extract] Would you publish the worst thing that ever happened to you?



When Amani Haydar’s mother was murdered by her father in an act of domestic violence, writing helped process the pain. At first, she wrote in private, journalling as a way “to express frustrations and insecurities I feared couldn’t be spoken out loud at the time”

Cardell, Kylie

Harous, Christiana

Maguire, Emma

Woodyatt, Lydia

English

ResearchOnline at James Cook University

Academic rigour, journalistic flairKylie CardellAssociate Professor in Literary Studies, Flinders UniversityChristiana HarousPhD Candidate / Provisional Psychologist, Flinders UniversityEmma MaguireLecturer in English and Writing, James Cook UniversityLydia WoodyattAssociate professor, Flinders UniversityWould you publish the worst thing that ever happened to you?When Amani Haydar’s mother was murdered by her father in an act of domestic violence, writinghelped process the pain. At first, she wrote in private, journalling as a way “to express frustrations andinsecurities I feared couldn’t be spoken out loud at the time”.Masha Raymers/Pexels, CC BYHow can publishers support the authors of trauma memoirs,as they unpack their pain for the public? New researchinvestigatesPublished: February 16, 2023 6.06am AEDTHaydar is a trained lawyer; the chance to write a Victim Impact Statement reminded her howimportant survivor voices are within justice settings. More broadly, she found herself inspired byacclaimed memoirs and public testimonies of gendered violence.She was inspired by Bri Lee, who detailed the process of successfully bringing a legal complaintagainst her abuser in her memoir Eggshell Skull. And by Chanel Miller, whose victim impactstatement addressing the fellow student who received a light sentence for sexually assaulting her wentviral on Buzzfeed. (Miller’s memoir, Know My Name, was published in 2019.)When she undertook the difficult task of crafting her private pain into a story for an audience, Haydarwas driven by the chance to honour her mother’s story – and a desire to show other Muslim womenthe power of speaking out. She wanted to “document the way violence and trauma had affected myfamily more broadly”, which was complicated by her identity as a Muslim woman, as well as thenature of memoir as a literary genre.The act of writing from lived experience as a trauma survivor involves making choicesbeyond the literary and political decisions a writer ordinarily makes. It carries added risksand can have emotional, psychological and practical consequences for the writer. This isparticularly so for survivors from racialised communities […] No matter how well orcarefully it is done, writing about trauma entails the risk that audiences will bring their pre-existing attitudes and prejudices into their reading of a survivor’s work.Writing and then publishing her memoir, The Mother Wound, demanded immense personal andpsychological resilience. It was hard, risky work: for her community, her family, and for her personalwellbeing.Trauma-informed approachesAmani Haydar wrote to help process her pain, after her father murdered her mother: her acclaimedmemoir is The Mother Wound.Haydar used a “trauma-informed” approach when writing her memoir:Understanding the effects of trauma and building a trauma-informed approach into mywriting practice has allowed me to navigate some of these risks and foster a writing practicethat facilitates personal healing despite the risk of re-traumatisation.When it was time to promote the book, she specifically worked through her fears with a coach andcounsellor.While Haydar structured her approach to writing and publishing her memoir with trauma in mind,authors who write about trauma often do so without an industry framework to support theirwellbeing. Writers who access psychological or other resources may then draw on their own networksor develop their own personal strategies for coping, as Haydar did.But what is the responsibility of the publisher – and the broader community of readers hungry fortrauma memoirs – towards the authors who re-live their trauma to write their books?Read more: More than half of Australians will experience trauma, most before they turn 17. We need to talk about itGuidelines for editorsResearcher Camilla Cripps recently wrote in Books & Publishing that despite our decades-long (andgrowing) appetite for trauma memoirs, Australia’s professional editing organisations have no sharedguidelines for editors working on trauma-based work. They neither provide shared guidelines forediting traumatic material, nor actively advocate a “do no harm” approach in their codes of conduct –which, Cripps says, is essential.Yet her research finds 87% of editors have worked on traumatic material and 60% have had traumadisclosed to them. One editor told us they’ve worked on several trauma memoirs, and are extremelyconscious, and sometimes nervous, of the responsibility and risks.I know things about some of my authors they’ve rarely disclosed to anyone – they’ve sharedin order to explain gaps in their text, or during intimate post-editing conversations. Editinga memoir can feel dangerously close to being the author’s therapist sometimes. Especiallywhen you need, as an editor, to question the motivations behind their “narrator’s” actions.But you’re not trained for it, of course. And you hope they’re ready to ask those questions ofthemselves.Formal training or guidelines for editors could help make this process safer, for editors and authorsalike. Cripps fears a lack of regulation risks “negative effects” on author and editor wellbeing.Cripps writes:in our editing practices and processes, we must take care to not re-traumatise or lay blame.Rather, we must champion messages of resilience and recovery, engage sensitively withauthors and responsibly approach problematic texts in a manner that protects our ownwellbeing.She calls for publishing to draw on the knowledge of other industries. “Trauma-informed practice is astrengths-based framework that guides the service provisions of the Australian healthcare andeducation sectors.”What do trauma memoirs cost their writers?Like Amani Haydar, journalist and writer Lucia Osborne-Crowley was inspired by Bri Lee’s EggshellSkull: reading the book encouraged her to acknowledge her own sexual assaults. Osborne-Crowleylater published her own memoir, I Choose Elena, about how comprehensively her childhood andadolescent sexual assaults impacted her life – even (and especially) when she attempted to ignorethem.She’s since become a #MeToo activist, reporting on the trials of Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard andGhislaine Maxwell. This week, she reported on Twitter she’d been checked into a residential traumarehab facility, partly as a result of reporting on the details on the Epstein case, which “no matter howhard I try, tap into some of my own memories of childhood sexual abuse”.Osborne-Crowley’s experience speaks to the dangerous side of writing about trauma for survivors.While it can be a useful way to process experience and channel it into the public good, it riskstriggering mental health issues around the very incidents drawn on.Terri White is the author of Coming Undone, a memoir that detailed, among other things, an abusivechildhood and a mental health breakdown that landed her in a psychiatric ward.Lucia Osborne-Crowley became a #MeToo activist after publishing a memoir on her own sexual abuse – but reporting on the Epstein case has been triggering.She wrote in the Guardian in February 2023 that the publication process – being edited, having yourbook legalled, and the reviews, media and live events – can be retraumatising.For her, the lowest point was when, “The lawyer (doing their job), wanted to remove an incident ofsexual abuse, as there was no proof.” It was a reminder of the nature of childhood sexual absue: thereis often no proof, and you’re “violated, then silenced”.It is not enough, she says, to “rely on single good people”. Instead, she suggests shared resources thatcould be routinely provided as part of the process of memoir publishing, such as “a set of agreedprinciples and harm-reduction guidelines” and a “directory of counsellors, therapists, helplines andspecific support organisations.”Read more: Boxing empowered me to express my trauma – now, I help other abuse survivors do the same, combining it with creative writingWhat do trauma memoirs give us?Since the 2000s, there’s been a rise of life narrative by “ordinary” subjects as a form of activism andsocial justice, connected to several significant social movements of the 21st century – especially,perhaps, #MeToo.Think: Amani Haydar, Bri Lee, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Terri White.And Gunai/Kurnai former police offer, Veronica Gorrie. Black and Blue is her memoir of a difficultchildhood shaped by colonial racism and disadvantage, followed by a damaging stint as a Queenslandpolice officer, where she experienced further systemic racism.Veronica Gorrie’s memoir details her difficult childhood, followed by systemic racism as a Queenslandpolice officer. Photo credit T.J. Garvie.In Australia, personal testimony has been a critical element in creating frameworks for reconciliation.Gillian Whitlock calls it “active remembrance” – and it has particular significance in understandingand reckoning with the violent legacy of colonialism for Indigenous people.Life narratives can illuminate the realities of injustices that occur in private spheres – like child abuseand sexual assault – and injustices that happen “elsewhere”, like war crimes. Such stories canhumanise people who have been dehumanised by popular media or politicians.When we read about someone else’s painful experience, we are offering the writer the opportunity forrecognition and to be heard. This can be an important reparative act, within contexts of institutionalor social failure. And it can have tangible outcomes, like “improvements in policies for prevention andresponse”.Why do writers risk telling difficult stories?The act of writing has been associated with many benefits for mental health and wellbeing. Researchhas supported the therapeutic benefits of expressive writing for both health and mental health.But expressive writing and published memoir are not the same. Writing about trauma has its ownchallenges, and publication amplifies these.Over a decade ago, in 2011, Kate Holden wrote a reflection on the aftermath of publishing her widelyacclaimed 2005 memoir of sex work and drug addiction, In Your Skin. It was Holden’s first book andshe had little real idea about what its publication would entail.There were some remarkable highs: prizes, attention, the chance to properly pursue a writing career.She gained emotional benefits and a sense of contributing to social progress and change. Readersconfided in her. The memoir changed their mind, opened their eyes, created empathy orunderstanding. The opportunity to advocate was exhilarating.Yet, “for every ten letters praising my book, there would be one calling me spiteful names, aimingpersonal insults and offering unsolicited judgement on the life I’d lived”.Speaking about her story in public again and again became exhausting, as did defending her memoiragainst its critics. Holden found herself struggling emotionally, experiencing a kind of psychologicalsplitting. For a while, she vowed to never write memoir again. (She did: The Romantic, in 2010.)Samantha Van Zweden observes in an essay on the challenges for writers of personal stories:honest, raw stories can be taxing to the mental health of those who write them. Sometimesthat’s because they deal explicitly with mental health issues. Sometimes it’s because the mostvulnerable people do the heaviest lifting in telling difficult stories.Read more: The Body Keeps the Score: how a bestselling book helps us understand trauma – but inflates the definition of itHow should publishers support writers?Our research aims to address the question of how publishers can support writers. A starting point is topay attention to what writers themselves are saying about the wellbeing and mental health challengesof publishing memoir.Writing about trauma can involve very specific craft skills: for example, how to maintain an emotionalregister without overwhelming a reader; how to negotiate legal or ethical constraints on what can besaid.There is a lot to be gained by societies in the production and consumption of “difficult” memoirs. Butwhat are the costs of writing these stories? What tools and scaffolding might the arts and cultureindustries need to alleviate some of the damaging effects of writing and publishing trauma?And how should authors take care of themselves in the process of writing and publishing – especiallywhen they are putting their lives or those of vulnerable others on the page?Writers and wellbeingPsychological skills and knowledge can help address typical issues that might arise when writingabout difficult topics, and support mental health and wellbeing. It’s important to train people in these skills.Kate Holden found it exhausting to keep speaking about her story in public; she found herself strugglingemotionally.Mental health and wellbeing can be considered two-dimensional (the dual-continua model of mentalhealth). People can experience higher or lower symptoms of psychopathology, such as anxiety,depression, obsessions, sleeplessness, rumination or panic.At the same time, they can experience higher or lower wellbeing, such as feeling satisfied with life,connected to others, a sense of meaning, agency, or growth. Symptoms of psychopathology need to beassessed separately from satisfaction (hedonic) and growth-orientated (eudaimonic) aspects ofwellbeing.Different stages of writing and publication may have different types of impact on wellbeing. A writermight need different types of skills and supports as they move through different parts of the writingand publishing cycle. For example, while writing may have therapeutic benefits, being exposed tocritique – from book editors, the media and readers – may have problematic impacts.Declining wellbeing can be a risk factor for the onset of mental illness. So strategies that help writerscultivate wellbeing across their life may reduce risk of onset of mental illness.But mental health and wellbeing cannot be considered in isolation from systemic issues, such aspoverty, working conditions, racism and prejudice, being culturally valued for one’s work, and havingaccess to communities of support.Samantha van Zweden, author of Eating With my Mouth Open, a memoir about her relationship tofood, explained has written about some of the challenges authors (of any kind) typically face,including:insecure work and income, an inability to access expensive or exclusive treatment, isolatedworking conditions, a lack of benefits including sick leave and holiday pay, and a culturethat often encourages burnout.Such challenges are amplified for writers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, or whomay also be navigating disability or illness.Read more: Living with complex illness and surviving to tell about it: Anna Spargo-Ryan's chronic optimismResearching how industry can support writersHow can we better prepare, support and sustain the work of memoirists and others who write aboutdifficult personal material?A growing chorus of those writers are calling for an industry response to issues they’ve raised,including within their own published memoirs.To amplify these voices, we are conducting qualitative research, which will show how writersexperience their profession and map the nature of the psychological challenges to wellbeing they face.Our research sets out to better understand whether writers might benefit from different sets of tools,or have different experiences of resilience at different stages of the writing and publishing process.This kind of knowledge about the lived experience and wellbeing needs of working writers can informpublishers and other industry professionals: including editors, but also reviewers, interviewers, oreven festival goers. It can faciliate the creation of community-centred resources, guidelines andprograms to engage and support writers.Working with writers, writing organisations and publishing industry representatives will help findsolutions to these problems – and give writers a voice on how their experiences shape them.If you are a writer and would like to participate in our research, you can click here.

How Can Publishers Support the Authors of Trauma Memoirs As They Unpack Their Pain for the Public?

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How Can Publishers Support the Authors of Trauma Memoirs As They Unpack Their Pain for the Public?

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