Aftershocks reverberated worldwide in the wake of Donald Trump’s vulgar and hate-filled comments about Haitian and African immigrants on January 11, 2018, when he reportedly used the word “shithole” to describe their countries of origin. His striking lack of compassion in that moment was startling, but no words can describe the added cruelty of maligning Haiti one day before a painful anniversary when memories of trauma and unfathomable loss inevitably resurface.
Author: Melanie Brooks
Melanie Brooks is a professor at Northeastern University, Merrimack College and Nashua Community College and a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Creative Nonfiction, the Huffington Post, Modern Loss, Hippocampus, Bustle and Solstice Literary Magazine, and she is the author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma. Melanie is completing a memoir, All the Things I Couldn’t Say, about the lasting impact of living with the secret of her father’s HIV status. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children and yellow Lab.
The Ms. Q&A: How Reema Zaman Found Healing in Her Own Story
“The biggest goal and purpose of this book is to provide medicine: a call to action, an invitation of empathy, a healing balm.”