Poets & Writers

Letters

WRITERS & SURVIVORS

I just finished reading Jay Baron Nicorvo’s essay “Why We Write: The Unwilling Suspension of Disbelief” (January/February 2018), and I am so happy you chose to publish it. When I published my first book of poetry, , released by CavanKerry Press in 2006, which examines my experience as a survivor of childhood sexual violence, very few people were acknowledging that people like Nicorvo and has welcomed the voice of a male survivor of sexual violence into its pages, but especially now, in this moment of #MeToo and the awareness that movement has brought to the issue, it is both gratifying and affirming to hear from a fellow survivor who chooses to make his experience with post-traumatic stress disorder part of his creative work. Many thanks for publishing this essay.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers5 min read
Hey, Jealousy
I AM HERE to tell you about the time I rage-puked with envy over another author’s success. When my first novel came out in summer 2011, I knew very few other writers, so the ones I met that year became not only my instant friends, but also—it was ine
Poets & Writers3 min read
Reactions
Feedback from readers “Earth: Ground Yourself in Purpose” (January/February 2024) by Laura Spence-Ash caught my attention and my heart. I related most especially to her recounting of feedback she received in a workshop that nearly derailed her writin
Poets & Writers3 min read
Literary MagNet
In her debut poetry collection, Self-Mythology (University of Arkansas Press, April 2024), Saba Keramati explores the shifting nature of the self. In lyrics and a variety of poetic forms, such as the cento and abecedarian, Keramati’s speaker consider

Related Books & Audiobooks