The Elting Memorial Library is proud to host Natasha Williams in the Steinberg Room on Wednesday May 7th at 7PM as she discusses her new memoir The Parts of Him I Kept: The Gifts of My Father's Madness. She will be joined in conversation by Dr. Leslie Periera. Join us, readers, students/professors of social work, psychology, and mental health care providers; for a reading and conversation about the power of narrative story telling to make sense of growing up in families with mental illness. Dr. Leslie Pereira will guide a conversation about writing and applying a strength based perspective to the dialogue around mental health, stigma, and caring for our loved ones. Register if you would like to receive an email reminder the day before the program.

ABOUT THE BOOK: "One cold night in April, Natasha's father drove his car into the frigid water of New York Bay with her two-year-old half-sister in the backseat. She was the one to walk him past the column of hungry reporters demanding an explanation.  The headline in The Daily News read: 'Back from a Watery Grave.'

But Natasha's experiences growing up with her schizophrenic father in the gritty New York City of the 1970s are not so easily captured in a single headline. How could she possibly convey the power of her father's love in the face of this tragedy? 

Williams' memoir, The Parts of Him I Kept, is an intimate account of coming of age in the face of a father's schizophrenic unraveling. Williams investigates the limits of our medical and cultural understanding of schizophrenia while chronicling the shared burden and benefits of caring for a mentally ill family member. In the tradition of Michael Greenberg's Hurry Down Sunshine and Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road, The Parts of Him I Kept asks us to consider the ways mental illness is as much a social issue as a biological condition. 

The Parts of Him I Kept humanizes living with mental illness and illuminates how families find hope, and even thrive, in the face of the extraordinary challenge of mental illness."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This is Natasha Williams' debut  book. She has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers  Conference. Excerpts and essays have been published in the Bread Loaf Journal, Change Seven, LIT, Memoir Magazine, Onion River Review, Writers Read, Post Road,  and South Dakota Review. 

Natasha WilliamsWriter.com 


Co-Presenter Bio: "Dr. Leslie Pereira has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 3 decades. Her work has spanned the fields of Community Mental Health, Women's Health, Academia, and the Workplace. In addition to her direct practice experience as a therapist, she has worked as a clinical social work educator, supervisor and trainer, a program planner, and community organizer. She is a former NIMH Research Fellow. For the past 8 years she has worked as an Employee Assistance Program Specialist providing
counseling, support, training, and management consulting to employees and organizations across New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley. She leads a monthly Leadership
Seminar, "Conversations in Resonant Leadership," for managers and supervisors, and maintains a private coaching practice specializing in Women’s Health and
Relationships."

 

“A profound meditation on love and family. Natasha Williams offers us a portrait of America at a time when everything was in flux, when people searched for new ways to live, and (if they were lucky) ended up simply loving each other.” – Nick Flynn, Author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and Low life