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Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies. Her new book, SHOUT, a memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault at the age of thirteen and a manifesta for the #MeToo era, has received widespread critical acclaim and was Laurie's eighth New York Times bestselling book.

Two of her novels, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was short-listed for the prestigious Carnegie medal in the United Kingdom. Laurie has been nominated for Sweden's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award seven times. Laurie was selected by the American Library Association for the Margaret A. Edwards Award and has been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English.

In addition to combating censorship, Laurie regularly speaks about the need for diversity in publishing and is a member of RAINN's National Leadership Council. She lives in Philadelphia, where she enjoys cheesesteaks while she writes. Find out more about Laurie by following her on Twitter at @halseanderson, Instagram at halseanderson, and Facebook at lauriehalseanderson, or by visiting her website, madwomanintheforest.com.

New York Times Bestselling Author

Two-time National Book Award nominee

2016 - 2022 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Candidate

2015 Outstanding Alumni Award, American Association of Community Colleges

2015 Intellectual Freedom Award, National Council of Teachers of English

2011 Free Speech Defender Award, National Coalition Against Censorship

2010 School Library Month Spokesperson for American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of American Library Association (ALA)

2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award, given by the American Library Association for significant and lasting achievement in young adult literature

2008 Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) Award, given to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature

2002 Free Library of Philadelphia/Drexel University Children's Literature Citation

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Laurie Halse Anderson | Mad Woman in the Forest

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Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies. Her new book, SHOUT, a memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault at the age of thirteen and a manifesta for the #MeToo era, has received widespread critical acclaim and was Laurie's eighth New York Times bestselling book.

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Laurie Halse Anderson - National Book Foundation

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Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author of books for kids of all ages--including Speak, Fever 1793, Chains, Twisted, and many others.

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Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer, known for children's and young adult novels. She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for her contribution to young adult literature.

She was first recognized for her novel Speak, published in 1999.

Laurie Beth Halse was born October 23, 1961, to Rev. Frank A. Halse Jr. and Joyce Holcomb Halse in Potsdam, New York. She grew up there with her younger sister, Lisa. As a student, she showed an early interest in writing, specifically during the second grade. Anderson enjoyed reading-especially science fiction and fantasy-as a teenager, but never envisioned herself becoming a writer.

Anderson attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, in Manlius, New York, a suburb of Syracuse.

During Anderson's senior year, she moved out of her parents' house at the age of sixteen and lived as an exchange student for thirteen months on a pig farm in Denmark. After her experience in Denmark, Anderson moved back home to work at a clothing store, earning the minimum wage. This motivated her to attend college.

Laurie Halse Anderson married Greg Anderson. In 1985, they had their first child, Stephanie Holcomb. Two years later, they had their second child, Meredith Lauren. The couple later divorced.[citation needed ]

Years later, Anderson moved back to Mexico, New York, and rekindled feelings with her childhood sweetheart, Scot Larrabee. Anderson eventually married-and is still married to-Larrabee. Together, they combined their families-Anderson's two daughters and Larrabee's two children, Jessica and Christian.

Anderson began her career as a freelance journalist and worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer in the early years of her career. During this time, Anderson also began to write children's and young adult novels. Despite receiving rejection letters, Anderson released her first children's novel, Ndito Runs, in 1996, based on Kenyan Olympic marathon runners who ran to and from school each day. Later that year, she had her story Turkey Pox published. This story was inspired by her daughter, Meredith, who broke out with chickenpox on Thanksgiving. In 1998, Anderson published No Time For Mother's Day, featuring the same characters.

During her early career, Anderson wrote several pieces of non-fiction. The first was a children's book featuring Saudi Arabia. She also co-authored a book about parenting shy children with Dr. Ward Swallow.

In 1999, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Anderson's best-known novel to date, . It was a New York Times Bestseller and was adapted into film in 2004, starring Kristen Stewart as Melinda Sordino. The novel became a finalist for the National Book Award and won Anderson honors for its portrayal of a thirteen-year-old girl who becomes mute after a sexual assault. The paperback version was published in 2001 by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing. Speak has been translated into 16 languages.

In 2018, Anderson revealed that she was raped when she was thirteen years old, and the novel was based on her experience. Anderson later wrote a memoir, , about her life when she was a teenager, including details of her rape and the trauma she faced afterward.

In 2000, Anderson's Fever 1793, a historical fiction novel set in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic, was published by Simon and Schuster. Fever 1793 received two starred reviews, state and national awards, and was a Publishers Weekly Bestseller.

In 2002, after the publication of Fever 1793, was published by Penguin under the Viking imprint. The action takes place in the same high school as Speak and features cameo appearances by some of its characters. The book became a Barnes & Noble Best Teen Book of 2002 and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.

Anderson's fiction picture book, Thank You, Sarah! The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving was published in 2002. The book received two starred reviews, and was named in the ALA Amelia Bloomer List and the Junior Library Guild Selection.

In 2005, Anderson published Prom, which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list in early 2005. The book received three starred reviews, was nominated for several state awards, and received national recognition from the American Library Association (ALA) and the International Reading Association.

Anderson's fourth YA novel, Twisted, was released in the spring of 2007 by Viking. It won awards such as the ALA Best Book for Young Adults 2008, ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults 2008, International Reading Association Top Ten of 2007, and New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age, and became a New York Times Bestseller.

In 2008, Anderson published another historical fiction novel, , about a teenage Revolutionary War-era slave. The novel was awarded the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

The second novel in the Seeds of America trilogy, Forge, was released in October 2010, by Simon and Schuster. The book received three starred reviews and became a Junior Library Guild Selection, a Kirkus Best Book for Teens: Historical Novels 2010, The Horn Book Fanfare List Best Book of 2010, and one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's (YALSA) 2011 Best Books for Young Adults.

Anderson later released Wintergirls in March 2009. The novel tells the story of two girls-one of whom is dead at the beginning-who have from bulimia and anorexia. Wintergirls received five-star reviews and nominations for state awards, was named an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, and debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list . Wintergirls has been published in over 15 different countries.

The ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work "for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature." Anderson won the annual award in 2009, citing three novels published from 1999 to 2002: Speak, Fever 1793, and Catalyst. The ALA called the novels "gripping and exceptionally well-written" and the panel chair said that "Laurie Halse Anderson masterfully gives voice to teen characters undergoing transformations in their lives through their honesty and perseverance while finding the courage to be true to themselves." In 2017, she received the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature, a career award presented by the Tulsa City-County Library.

Several of Anderson's early children's picture books were placed on recommended reading lists and some won awards. For the novel Speak, Anderson won the Golden Kite award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She was a runner-up for the Michael L. Printz Award and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Fever 1793 was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults selection and a Junior Library Guild selection. Chains was a National Book Award finalist in 2008 and it won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2009.

Seeds of America series, also referred to as "Chains: Seeds of America" series or simply "Chains" series.

Children's books

Turkey Pox (1996)

No Time for Mother's Day (2001)

The Big Cheese of Third Street (2002)

Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution (2008)

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School (2009)

Vet Volunteers series (Previously published by Pleasant Company under the title Wild at Heart)

1. Speak: The Graphic Novel, illustrated by Emily Caroll (2019)

2. Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed, illustrated by Leila Del Duca (2020)

Shout: The True Story of a Survivor Who Refused to be Silenced (2019)

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Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer, known for children's and young adult novels. She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for her contribution to young adult literature. She was first recognized for her novel Speak , published in 1999.

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Laurie Halse Anderson

Primary Vocation: Literary

Geographic Connection to Pennsylvania: Maple Glen, Montgomery County

Laurie Halse Anderson, who once worked for the The Philadelphia Inquirer, is an acclaimed author of books for children and young adults, including the New York Times Bestseller Speak.

Awards: Golden Kite Award for Fiction, Margaret A. Edwards Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, ALAN Award

Abstract:

Laurie Halse Anderson was born on October 23, 1961, in Potsdam, New York. She earned her AA from Onondaga County Community College and BS in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University. Soon after, she started a family and a career with The Philadelphia Inquirer and as a freelance reporter with other periodicals. Anderson began publishing her own work in 1996, with her first picture book, Ndito Runs. She went on to publish more picture books, including The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School (2009), and several works for children and young adult readers, including acclaimed books Speak (1999), Fever 1793 (2000), and Chains (2008). Anderson has been recognized with multiple honors and awards, including a Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, an ALAN Award, and bestseller lists.

Biography

Laurie Halse (rhymes with waltz) Anderson was born Laurie Beth Halse on October 23, 1961, in Potsdam, New York, to Frank and Joyce Halse. She received her AA from Onondaga County Community College in 1981 and went on to earn a BS in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1984. After completing her education, Anderson started a family and worked as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was also a freelance reporter for other newspapers and magazines. In 1996, she began publishing her own books with her first picture book for children titled Ndito Runs.

Anderson is well-known for her work Speak (1999), a book she wrote for teenage readers that tells the story of Melinda, a high school freshman. Melinda is an outcast at her school who is sexually assaulted by a senior at a party. The book documents Melinda's reactions to the assault and her feelings of isolation and rejection from those who surround her. Anderson had the idea to write Speak after awaking from a nightmare in which she heard a young girl screaming for help. Speak was adapted to film, starring Kristen Stewart, in 2004. Anderson's other works include Fever 1793 (2000), the story of a teenage girl during a yellow fever breakout, numerous books in the "Wild at Heart" series, the picture book The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School (2009), and others.

Anderson has received many awards for her publications. Her picture books received various awards and were placed on recommended reading lists. And her two books, Speak and Fever 1793 have been widely recognized. She received honors, such as being a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People's Literature for Speak, and this book won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Printz Honor Medal Book Award. Fever 1793 was an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults selection and also a Junior Library Guild selection.

Forge, her sequel to the popular Chains (2008) novel, was published in 2010. Chains tells the tale of a young slave girl named Isabel who is sold to a family in New York and ends up spying for the rebels during the Revolutionary War. Forge takes on the voice of Curzon, an on-again-off-again slave that befriended Isabel in the first book, as he takes part in the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Chains was selected as a 2008 National Book Award Finalist and was awarded the 2009 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

According to her website, Anderson received the 2008 ALAN Award from the high school English teachers of America for her "outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature." She was also chosen by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to be their School Library Month spokesperson in April 2010.

At the time of this writing, Laurie Halse Anderson lives in Philadelphia and regularly advocates for diversity in publishing.

Selected Works:

Books

Speak. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999.

Fever 1793. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Saudi Arabia (A Ticket To). Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 2001.

Habla. Barcelona: Norma S A Editorial, 2002.

Prom. New York: Viking, 2005.

Twisted. New York, Viking, 2007.

Chains. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Forge. New York, Antheneum Books, 2010.

Picture Books

Ndito Runs. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

Turkey Pox. Morton Grove: Albert Whitman, 1996.

No Time for Mother's Day. Morton Grove: Albert Whitman, 1999.

The Big Cheese of Third Street. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Thank You, Sarah!!: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Independent dames : what you never knew about the women and girls of the American Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.

Wild at Heart Series

Fight for Life. Middleton: Pleasant Company, 2000.

Homeless. Middleton: Pleasant Company, 2000.

Masks. Middleton: Pleasant Company, 2002.

End of the Race. Middleton: Pleasant Company, 2003.

Sources:

Anderson, Laurie. Fever 1793. Afterword. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Anderson, Laurie. Ndito Runs. Afterword. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

Anderson, A. H. and Queen Louise. Laurie Halse Anderson. Madwomanintheforest.com. 2009. 1 September 2017. <http://madwomanintheforest.com/laurie/>.

Hedblad, Alan. ed. "Laurie Halse Anderson." Something About the Author. Vol. 95 (1998): 1-3.

"Laurie Halse Anderson." The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors Online. 2002. 10 October 2011.

"Laurie Halse Anderson." Mad Woman in the Forest. 2012. 26 June 2018. <http://madwomanintheforest.com/>.

Written by Mandy Criswell, Summer 2002; updated 2018

Literary & Cultural Heritage Map of PA Biography List Feature Articles

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Laurie Halse Anderson Primary Vocation: Literary Geographic Connection to Pennsylvania: Maple Glen, Montgomery County Laurie Halse Anderson, who once worked for the The Philadelphia Inquirer, is an acclaimed author of books for children and young adults, including the New York Times Bestseller Speak. Awards: Golden Kite Award for Fiction, Margaret A.

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In a Memoir, Laurie Halse Anderson Gets Personal About Rape (Published 2019)

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Anderson’s novel “Speak” broke open the silence about teenagers and sexual assault. Now “Shout” aims to help other victims find their voices.

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Transcript from an interview with Laurie Halse Anderson

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Below is an edited transcript from Reading Rockets’ interview with Laurie Halse Anderson. The transcript is divided into the following clips:A bumpy startFamily influencesAnimal attractionFirst booksBooks for younger readersGenre jumpingAre you in there?Choosing a favoriteRevulsions and revisionsDig…

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And we now turn to the act of violence that shames so many into silence, and that is sexual abuse. Our next guest says the time to speak up on the matter has long passed. And instead, we must now shout. 20 years ago, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson penned, "Speak." It was groundbreaking novel confronting rape and it became mandatory reading in classrooms across America. Now, enraged by how little the culture has changed, Anderson is braving her personal experience with sexual abuse in her new memoir, which is called "Shout." She told our Alicia Menendez why she believes the issue is only getting worse.

ALICIA MENENDEZ: Laurie, thank you so much for joining us.

LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON, AUTHOR, "SHOUT": I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

MENENDEZ: More than 20 years ago you had a dream, some might call it a nightmare, that led you to write your first book "Speak." Can you tell me about that moment?

ANDERSON: That moment came a few months after I had finally gone into therapy. Because 23 years earlier, when I was 13, I was raped and I didn't tell anybody about it. And my PTSD and depression had finally gotten to the point where I had no choice, I needed help. And after I started exploring my trauma in - with a therapist, then as a writer, I wanted to explore it in my writing. And this character showed up one night just sobbing in my head and she wound up becoming the Melinda Sordino, the main character in "Speak."

MENENDEZ: At the time, you didn't publicly tie the story in "Speak" to your own story. When did you decide to start sharing that publicly?

ANDERSON: When "Speak" came out in 1999 I began to receive invitations to speak at high schools all over the country. And at first, I just thought I was supposed to talk about literary elements. But then listening to students' questions made me realize I had a responsibility to talk about my experience and to model survivorship. So, it was quite shortly after I started traveling that I began to share my real story. "Speak" is about 10 percent my story. "Shout" is 100 percent.

MENENDEZ: Your new book "Shout" is a poetry memoir about your experience of surviving. For someone who's not read it, talk me through the structure of the book and why you wanted to write it this way.

ANDERSON: Oh, that's a great question. The book opens with a poem about my father, who is a veteran from World War II and who developed PTSD after his experience helping to clean up after the Dachau concentration camp. In order to understand my reaction when I was raped, which is keep my mouth shut and not talk, you need to understand the context of my family's silence around issues of violence and hard conversations. We just didn't talk about those things. So, that's a little bit - that sets up what happened to me when I was 13 and then my reactions and how I dealt with that attack very badly, which led to the writing of "Speak" eventually. The second section of the book is everything that I have learned from survivors for over 20 years. How many victims are out there, how powerful each story is. And I let my own rage peep through with suggestions about how to change things. And at the end I circle back to my parents, whom I loved. You know, it's hard when people die, you still love them, but we have to put that in the past tense, love them so much. And thankfully, they lived long enough we were able to really do some deep loving work at the end of their lives, which has really strengthened me.

MENENDEZ: But why poetry?

ANDERSON: Oh, poetry is what you write when the subject is very important. You want to leave room for the reader to reflect. And often, when you're writing in a traditional prose narrative, you just - it's the next thing and the sections connect together. Poetry is a punch in the gut or it's a hug. And I wanted readers to experience one of those two reactions, and then take a breath afterwards.

MENENDEZ: You share the stories of so many others who have come to you. Is there one story that stands out to you among the many?

ANDERSON: Oh, gosh, there are so many. The one that most recently just took my knees out, I was at a conference a few years ago in Ohio, and a young girl, she was about 12 years old, was talking about - very quietly, about her sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. And she had finally gone to her mom. She had already received the support and was ongoing. But obviously, they couldn't live with that stepfather after that. So, she and her mom were living in their car. The stories are endless. And the victims are not just women. We have to always be really careful that men and boys are victims. On college campus, people who identify as transgender are more at risk for sexual violence than women, which is shocking. And it's - I think we're finally getting to the point where the elephant isn't in the room. The elephant is in every room in America. I believe sexual violence touches every family, and I know the after effects of sexual violence can lead to trauma not just for the victim but generationally.

MENENDEZ: Would you read a section from the book for me?

ANDERSON: I would love to read a section. This is the first part of a triptych that really looks at - this is - so, this is an event that happened just before I was raped. "It, part one, gasoline. Represent the line in "Speak" and I thought for just a minute there that I would start high school with a boyfriend. Yes, that was me. For a couple of naive days when I was 13 years old. We moved in June, four shards of a family, one apartment of burnt orange and avocado green, two bedrooms. I bought the good-bye yellow brick road album with my baby-sitting money. The boy across the street had a motor bike. He siphoned gas for it every night. The trick he said was only to take a little from each car. That way no one noticed. He grabbed me once, pushed me against a brick wall, hands greased with experience, arms, metal cables looping around and encasing me. I fought, tried to kick and fail, his mouth dove for my neck and I bit him until I tasted blood. He backed off, furious, cried that human bites were germ-filled, poisonous. I said I hoped that was true. That boy tasted gasoline dangerous but he wasn't it. My sour victory did not last long."

MENENDEZ: What does it take to excavate your memory and write something like that?

ANDERSON: There wasn't much excavation. I think most victims of sexual violence, and there's that range from unwanted contact to chronic abuse to frank rape, those memories are kind of always simmering under the surface. They help determine how we make our choices on a daily basis to stay safe. And I have to always, you know, respect and appreciate the teenagers that I have crossed paths with for 20 years because they have shown me over and over again how much they need adults to be honest with them about what is out there in the world, and to help them figure out the direction of their moral compass.

MENENDEZ: Some might expect over the course of more than 20 years your anger would dissipate but it seems your anger has only grown.

ANDERSON: The world has gotten worse, I think. In 1999, we were beginning to see some movement, you know. We were beginning to see victims coming forward and being not ashamed, asking news organizations to identify them because the people who should be shamed were the criminals who attacked them. I think that the rise of the internet, the availability of pornography, a lot of boys learn about sex from pornography. And sadly, there's a lot of nonconsensual sex in those videos. I don't - you know, I have a strong opinion about porn one way or another. But because so many teenage boys don't have adults who will talk to them about consent, talk to them about healthy sexuality, if that's the lesson that they're learning, they go out and wind up hurting their partners.

MENENDEZ: Right. To that point, in the U.S., only 4 out of 10 rapes get reported. In 2016 less than 3 out of 10 reported, and of those less than a third are eventually punished, that's according to FBI data. Are we where you thought we would be as a society when it comes to talking about and grappling with this issue?

ANDERSON: You add to that statistic the more than 400,000 untested rape kits that are sitting on the shelves in police departments and those are from the victims that came forward. We have a system, an ancient system in this country, where the bodies of victims are not important. We are beginning to see some policy improvements. You have organizations like the RAINN, the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, that is working with police departments, judiciary and top-level policymakers to enforce the laws that are on the book and then to develop consistent consent-based laws. We want everybody to feel safe and we want everyone to come forward and report when somebody hurts them. That's fair.

MENENDEZ: So often in this conversation we tend to make it a very female- focused conversation. When you were going to schools, when you were talking with young people, what are you hearing from young men?

ANDERSON: They're clueless. They often get one lecture from their parents, that - which is really just don't get her pregnant and wear a condom so you don't get a disease. We still buy into the rape mythology that rape is our bad guys in the bush with a gun. If you're under 18 years old, 90 percent of those victims know their attacker, often know him quite well. It's the guy in your algebra class. And those are the kinds of encounters that we can prevent by respecting our young men and educating them and explaining what the rules are, the laws, as well as the rules of human dignity. They're really open to this.

MENENDEZ: When you have a young man come to you and you can tell that he is questioning himself and the lines that he may have crossed, and is grappling with, as you said, the fact he has an idea of who the rapist is and that idea is not him, what do you tell him?

ANDERSON: I listen very carefully. They have a hard time saying, "I raped somebody," but I've heard from teenage boys as well as grown men, "Oh, that regret. Oh, I pushed too far. I crossed the line." And that is maybe the next step we need to take in the #MeToo movement, is that we have to create spaces for those kinds of conversations, reckoning sort of a truth and reconciliation. Because a lot of men have harmed women, they were following the rules they were handed and we have to figure out how are we going to include them in the conversation, make sure first and foremost that victims are cared for, supported and helped, but also how can we prevent growing another crop of men and boys who don't understand the rules.

MENENDEZ: One of the things we watched in the wake of #MeToo is a lot of powerful men lose their jobs and then at breakneck speed a conversation about forgiveness and redemption. But I do wonder when we do get to the point where we, as a society, are able to grapple with that question, which is what does it look like for one to redeem one's self?

ANDERSON: I think that's a decision that every victim/survivor needs to determine. There's an interesting spectrum where people feel they are - and I think that when right after an assault, people identify as a victim and then they become a survivor. And they - I think they're the ones who are in charge of deciding do I want to have this conversation? Real forgiveness doesn't come quickly. Real forgiveness is earned. And that lays down deep roots that allow for growth for everybody.

MENENDEZ: We're having this conversation in somewhat of a gender binary, you mentioned, of course, members of the trans community and non-binary individuals but race is also a component. That when you overlay over this conversation, the conversation becomes additionally complicated.

ANDERSON: Thank you very much. I actually think that the intersectionality that we need to be having in all of these conversations simplifies things because it allows us to look - we need to - in this country, I wish we could start looking at each other as sisters and brothers and siblings. And understanding that the conversation around sexual violence often centers on white women, white middle-class women. Women from Native American nations have the highest rate of sexual violence often by non-native men. Our black girls and women are assaulted at higher rates. And everybody deserves to be respected and honored and cared for.

MENENDEZ: You have said you want people to share this book with their fathers, their grandfathers, their mothers, and their grandmothers. Why?

ANDERSON: We often look at the victims of today, which is good, but we have victims who have for 70 years been holding their secret. I have talked to women in their 80s. And I think they're listening to our elders giving them the opportunity to share their stories or to even reflect on the stories of others will open doors for healing for them. And that's another way to move the conversation forward. We are all a piece of this.

MENENDEZ: I want you to read one more excerpt from the book. It's on page 226.

ANDERSON: "Shame turned inside out. Sisters of the torn shirts, sisters of the chase around the desk casting couch, hotel room, file cabinet. Sisters dragging shattered dreams, bruised hopes, ambitions abandoned in the dirt. Sisters fishing one by one in the lake of shame. Hooks baited with fear always come back empty. Truth dawn flow when you have been beaten and lied to but it burns hard and bright once it wakes. Sisters, drop everything. Walk away from the lake, leaning on each other's shoulders when you need the support. Feel the contractions of another truth ready to be born. Shame turned inside out is rage."

MENENDEZ: Are we a society that is ready for women's rage?

ANDERSON: We make it ready. Society's never ready for rage because power - people who hold power want to stay in power. Rage is revolutionary. Rage is what fuels revolutions. I think it's time.

MENENDEZ: You have said you want to see Me Too moved to Us Too.

ANDERSON: Yes, ma'am.

MENENDEZ: What would that look like?

ANDERSON: That would mean that the shaming and blaming that women sometimes do with each other evaporates. And that we all - I think what's called for is a little generosity of spirit. This is not a competition. There is a spectrum of violence. There's a spectrum of response. I mean if we can all be a little bit more gracious with our hearts, that would go a long way to bringing us together.

MENENDEZ: We've talked a lot about conversations and the importance of conversations, but I do wonder, do you see a need or an opportunity for institutional change? And what would that look like?

ANDERSON: Oh, this is a crazy concept but what if the laws were consistent from state to state? What if police departments enforced how to deal with rape victims and how to deal with potential attackers consistently? It's so weird when you look at, for example, how judges treat - they seem to - often are more sympathetic to the perpetrator than to the victim. So consistency across the country would be the first step.

MENENDEZ: What do you think stands in the way of that?

ANDERSON: Generations of men who thought that women's bodies were their property. And those are the men who often are in charge of policies in their 60s and 70s who grew up at the time when that was the de facto. Men were allowed to rape their wives. Women had to leave their jobs when they got pregnant. And they're resistant, which is why we have to lean on the young a little bit. They see things more clearly and they have much more at stake.

MENENDEZ: Laurie, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: Oh, thank you. I appreciate this.

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Author Laurie Halse Anderson on Her Memoir "Shout"

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Award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson discusses how sexual abuse can shame many into silence, and why she named her new memoir recounting her own personal experience with sexual abuse, "Shout." Anderson's first book, "Speak," a teen fiction novel about a rape survivor, was a worldwide phenomenon and sent her on a speaking tour of high schools around the U.S.

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Laurie Halse Anderson was born on October 23, 1961, in Potsdam, New York, to Frank and Joyce Halse. She’s a well-known American author of children's and young adult novels. In 2010, she earned the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for her commitment to young adult literature. She first gained attention for her novel Speak, posted in 1999. She is a best-selling author in the New York Times.

Her books have sold over 8 million copies worldwide. SHOUT is one of her most recent books, a debut novel about surviving sexual assault as a teen, it has received critical praise and is Laurie's eighth New York Times bestselling book, it was released in 2019. She started her career as a freelance writer for The Philadelphia Researcher. Anderson also began writing children's and young adult novels at this time. Laurie's first picture book, Ndito Runs, was published in 1996. She was a victim of rape herself and I can imagine that was the reason she wrote the book, to spread awareness. She kept quiet all these years, but finally decided to do something about it.

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As soon as we start reading SHOUT, we know that the book is based on a personal experience. Laurie's best-selling books are based on her rocky journey to healing from her traumas. Writing about her experience is her way of spreading awareness, and making people realize the reality we live in. Her writing is touching because it talks about real social problems happening worldwide. Her stanzas in her writing lately have been reflecting the abuse she suffered in the past. Seeing how vulnerable she gets in her writing makes it even more special. I don’t know about you, but I love to read books about personal experiences because I love when they’re relatable. Laurie uses a lot of Metaphors and hyperboles in her writing to make a bigger impact. Hyperboles help emphasize the heaviness of the topic

The authors style can be perceived as dramatic. Laurie has an odd way of expressing her feelings but always manages to sell her story(quite literally).She talks about deep topics in such a calming way, its her way of copying. Her style is a picture o realism, calmness and dark.

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Laurie’s life has been a roller coaster of Emotions. After her trauma she has a falling out but later started to pull herself together bit by bit. The decision to write about her trauma led her to where she is right now. Instead of collapsing and overthinking her trauma, she rose above it and showed resilience. She has a strong character that has allowed her to overcome everything bad in her life.

We can see the pain in her writing, The abuse she suffered shaped her writing because it was from a personal perspective. But, as it keeps going we feel some sort of hope, Character development. Her writing takes us through her Journey of healing. We see how it starts a caterpillar and blossoms into a butterfly.

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