It became a best seller and an award winner while also making frequent appearances on the American Library Association’s “frequently challenged” books list. The answer turned out to be many, many people of all ages, genders and backgrounds. The book was rejected by one publisher, and even after it got the green light elsewhere, Anderson’s agent warned her not to expect too much.Ī book about a sexual assault - who would want to read that? She wrote in early-morning bursts, in the quiet time before the kids woke up and her day job began.

And then, she told the world in the only way she could at the time.Īnderson wrote “Speak” while she was working as a freelance journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and raising two young daughters. And that is positive.”īut in the mid-1990s, Anderson finally told a therapist. “As frustrating as it can be to look at the entrenched acceptance of sexual violence, in the year since ‘Shout’ came out, we have seen significant change.

It was a wonderful example of showing that there is no shame in being a victim of sexual violence. “Equally important to me, given my background, is that the women who were the victims and survivors had enough strength and confidence to stand up in court and say what happened. “What was so satisfying was that we are finally seeing a court trial that results in a verdict on some of the charges that will result in jail time,” Anderson said of the Feb. Although shouting from the rooftops was definitely an option. The subject was sexual assault, but for once, the news from the #MeToo front did not make her want to scream. A few days after a New York jury found Hollywood super-producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of two felony sex crimes, author Laurie Halse Anderson was at a writers’ retreat in the Poconos thinking about the thing she is always asked to think about.

Speak laurie halse