Writing Your Trauma in the Age of Epstein.
- vcostellowriter
- Mar 25
- 1 min read
Like anyone with a screen, I’ve been enraged and debilitated by the daily onslaught of Epstein-related horrors filling our newsfeeds. Add to it, my shame at realizing I’ve lived six decades unaware of the cabal of rich and powerful men, the same billionaires who run every major institution on which we depend, operating an international human trafficking syndicate to facilitate their crimes.
Triggered, anyone?
As a published author and writing teacher of trauma-centered memoir and autofiction, I have another, more immediate stake in this bizarre cultural moment. Since last December, I’ve been meeting weekly with eighteen, mostly female adult writers who are working on stories that reveal pretty much the worst things that have ever happened to them, including several cases of childhood sexual assault. My purpose with the class is to provide a safe space for these writers. First, to identify their traumatic memories. Then help them translate those experiences into a compelling story with a beginning, middle and end.
This is storytelling as a path to healing — for the benefit of the writers themselves and, ultimately, their readers.
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