The Answer is in the Wound by Kelly Sundberg

We are very excited to host Kelly Sundberg for an event celebrating her newest release, The Answer is in the Wound. For this event, Kelly will be joined by Megan Stielstra.

Please note: This event is free to attend, but registration is required.

An affecting memoir-in-essays from the acclaimed author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, The Answer Is in the Wound is a radical examination of the frac­tured, nonlinear nature of life after trauma. In this remarkable account of her own road to healing, Kelly Sundberg challenges a culture in which violence against women is normalized and writes against the implicit demand for sur­vivors to “get over it.”

Kelly Sundberg’s abusive marriage nearly broke her, and finding the courage to leave and begin the difficult process of putting herself back together was only the beginning of her story. Deeply courageous, The Answer Is in the Wound deftly explores the trials and joys Sundberg encountered not only as a newly sin­gle parent but also as someone in full pursuit of life. She developed an appreciation for new spiritual practices, reclaimed her body through tattoos, and even became “the problem” rather than going along to get along in her profes­sional life. From erasure poetry crafted from emails and a court-mandated apology letter from her ex-husband, to engaging with the research of some of the most prominent voices in fifty years of trauma psychiatry and psychology —from Judith Herman and Peter A. Levine to Bessel van der Kolk—The Answer Is in the Wound is a profound meditation on trauma and its lasting effects.

With the formal innovation and radical vulnerability of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and the cerebral precision of Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, Sundberg’s breathtaking collection offers a redemptive arc for trauma survivors and vital insight into what makes healing possible.

Kelly Sundberg is the author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, published by Harper in 2018. Her essay, “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” was anthologized in Best American Essays 2015, and other essays were listed as notables in 2013, 2016, and 2018. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Los Angeles Review, and The Rumpus. She has a PhD in creative nonfiction and she lives, writes, and edits in Columbus, Ohio.

Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, and her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Tin House, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and regularly with the Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is an editor with Northwestern University Press.

Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email ZXZlbnRzIHwgd29tZW5hbmRjaGlsZHJlbmZpcnN0ICEgY29t by no later than 14 days before the event. For scholarship tickets or other access needs please email .

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