During my final year of grad school I broke my arm in a bike accident. A near hit and run. In order to avoid the car I turned too hard and fell in one of the worst ways you can fall: on an outstretched arm. Shattered the bone near my elbow, it was so broken that I needed surgery. Yes, there’s a scar. A big one. Doctors had to cut me open and put me back together in order to heal.

A pivotal part of my recovery was working the wound. My hardened tissue had to be broken. My scarred skin had to be stretched. My elbow joint had to be pried open again and again. No matter how I approached recovery, my healing was on the other side of my pain.

Trauma in storytelling is complicated. Trauma in Black storytelling is something I face every time I put pen to paper. Sometimes it can feel like it’s all there is. I too have bemoaned the release of yet another lauded movie about slavery or Jim Crowe. But I never turn away. I believe that’s because I’m missing something in these repeated stories about racism in America. Unsure of exactly what, when I embarked on telling a story of my own I asked myself why I wanted to explore this. A great danger in exploring trauma is treating it like a monolith and approaching it without purpose. If I was going to bring readers to a painful place, I needed a damn good reason. For me, what it boils down to, time and time again is: if something hurts, I want to heal it.

Both JACKAL and my play Ink’dWell deal with something that is broken, be it a system of power or a family, and the efforts made to keep the pieces apart or put them back together. As I wrote both I learned that the only way through was to tell the truth. The truth is rarely boring, never simple, and almost always unexpected because the truth demands specificity. Sometimes telling the truth dips into the well of experiences shared by Black Americans. When putting pen to paper, instead of crafting generalized sweeping brush strokes, the truth demands dimension and detail. In the details I found humor. I found anger. I found heart. I found hope. If I had any hope of healing, writing my truth demanded multitudes.

I don’t have a definitive answer on how every writer should approach trauma or if they should even approach it at all. I only know how I work my wounds. I’ve found this effort a worthy one because every time I encounter a story that tells the truth about trauma and approaches it with the intent of healing, I find what I’m seeking: I witness how something that was broken gets put back together and I realize that I’m not alone in my experience.

Often healing isn’t going back to the way things were before, it is making something new. Thanks to my surgery my left arm gained a plate and six screws. As long as they don’t hurt me, they’ll stay in my body forever. I can do pushups and handstands again. I occasionally bike to work. I now joke with TSA about the titanium in my body before going through the scanner (it doesn’t set it off, thankfully). And sometimes, when the temperature drops below freezing, if my coat isn’t thick enough, I can feel the metal in my flesh, chilling me to the bone.

Next Up: Publication Day: A look back. A look ahead. A present moment.

Press

JACKAL received a STARRED review from Publishers Weekly! Full review here.

“[A] stellar debut . . .an unforgettable gut punch of a horror thriller . . . This novel is a masterful and emotionally wrenching gem of Black storytelling.” — Publishers Weekly

JACKAL was named one of Goodreads Readers’ Most Anticipated Books of the Fall

It was also named a Top Fall Debut by Library Journal

Read By Dusk included it in their list of 60 New Horror Books For The Spooky Season 2022

We’ve also started to roll out the blurbs!!

“Vicious, sharp and inventive—Jackal grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. Erin E. Adams lures readers deep into the woods with electric prose and then cuts through the dark with a monstrous and haunting tale.”

—Deb Rogers, author of Florida Woman

“Jackal is a visceral, poetic read of mythic proportions. Adams' no-holds-barred mysterious plunge into the shadows is both tender and thrilling, buoyed by her incandescent prose and unforgettable hero. Don't miss it.”

—Meredith Hambrock, author of Other People's Secrets

“This book will raise your blood pressure. A searing and achingly raw exploration of what it means to be Black in white spaces, and the contortionist act we are required to perform, the innocence stolen, and the monsters among us. All wrapped up in a suspenseful thriller that will fill you with rage and trusting no one. Adams has created a masterpiece that will keep your neck firmly beneath its foot long after the final word.” —Lane Clarke, author of Love Times Infinity

Pre-order your copy of JACKAL here.

… there’s so much more coming! Stay tuned!

September Giveaways

The Goodreads Giveaway for JACKAL is underway! 9/1 - 9/30. Enter to win one of ten copies.

Events

I’ll be in Philadelphia on 10.29.22 at 5 pm to participate in Tales That Keep You Up at Night at A Novel Idea.

Join us for an evening of spooky tales that are sure to keep you up at night! Featuring readings by Stephanie Feldman, Erin E. Adams, Craig Laurance Gidney, and Christina Rosso. Register here.

What I’m Reading

In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Other People’s Secrets by Meredith Hambrock

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