Author Description

Before she was a psychologist, a researcher, and a professor, Dr. Laura Kati Corlew was a troubled teen who poured her heart into her poetry. Finally, a Song from Silence (poetry from when I was young) contains a selection of these writings, addressing topics like identity development, depression and suicide, love and heartbreak, and gender, sex, and sexuality. Sometimes incisive and beautiful, sometimes clumsy and cringe-worthy, the poems reveal the honest struggles of an adolescent and young adult seeking to find herself when she is lost, seeking to redeem herself when she feels damned, and seeking to survive when there seems no point in life. Interspersed throughout are passages of commentary in which the adult psychologist remembers and analyzes her life as "a former at-risk youth." Dr. Corlew defines terms and concepts from developmental psychology and explores how developmental themes common in Adolescence ( age 12 to 18) and Emerging Adulthood ( age 18 to 25) are illustrated in her young writings. She discusses memories of emotions and experiences from her high school and college years. Any young person trying to make it through or any adult trying to make sense of what they once survived will appreciate the bald honesty and compassionate clarity found in this book.