Mandurah Readers and Writers Festival
This session I will speak with Gerard McCann author of Anatomy of a Secret and Khin Myint author of Fragile Creatures. We will look at writing as part of the healing process of trauma, how writing can transform a life that has been deeply impacted from a young age by incomprehensible forces that could not be named and yet resulted in life-altering harm. Two writers, two very different stories, that by the recording of events find a pathway to the restoration of equilibrium, a way of living that is not at the mercy of past wrongs. Both books are full of grace given freely by the authors. Moving and profoundly difficult material has been crafted into elegant narratives that hold the reader safely while navigating difficult terrain. Both deliver an understanding of each one’s challenging subject matter – in Gerard’s case child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church and in Khin’s racism and societal prejudices around illness and suicide – and the associated resulting shame for the child in each case. Difficult but told without drama, clean, and beautifully rendered, I commend both books to you. You will be the richer for reading these personal accounts that speak for so many who don’t have the words.
