Laurie Halse Anderson

In this episode of the podcast we talk with the groundbreaking writer Laurie Halse Anderson about her new book, Shout, a blazing work of memoir in free verse. Anderson's 1999 novel Speak brought readers with unforgettable vividness not the life of high school freshman Melinda Sordino after she is raped by another student. Speak went on to be nominated for a national book award; Anderson followed with a series of equally audacious novels for young adults and younger readers, including a set of award-winning historical novels set during the early days of the American republic. Anderson has spent much of the two decades following the publication of Speak traveling and talking with students about the realities of sexual violence, but in 2017, as the #MeToo movement was surfacing a renewed wave of women's stories, Anderson realized that she needed to return to writing directly about her own experiences. The result, she told me when we spoke recently, was a very unusual way to start a new book.