MARYA HORNBACHER
Best-Selling Author & Mental Health Advocate
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MARYA HORNBACHER |
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Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (HarperCollins 1998), when she was twenty-three. It has since been published in fourteen languages, is used in universities and writing programs all over the world, and has, according to the thousands of letters Marya has received over the years, changed lives.
When Hornbacher published Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet know the underlying reason for the constant battle with chaos and terror in her life. Then, at age twenty-four, she was diagnosed with an extreme form of bipolar disorder. Marya's memoir Madness: A Bipolar Life (Houghton Mifflin) is an intense, beautifully written book about the difficulties, and promise, of living with mental illness. It has been called "the most visceral, important book on mental illness to be published in years," and was published in April 2008. Eating Disorder Presentation WASTED Coming Back from an Addiction of Starvation My Journey Through Anorexia and Bulimia This presentation begins with a brief reading from her classic book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia. She then moves into her own story, talking about what it’s really like to live with an eating disorder. This is of great use not only to people with eating disorders, who benefit from a feeling of identification, but to friends, family, and professionals who encounter eating disorders in their daily lives all the time. But the heart of this presentation is Hornbacher’s approach to the topic of our entire culture’s engagement in the eating disorder game, the way each of us, eating disordered or not, are affected by media messages, by social norms, and by our own obsessions with body and food. Eating disorders aren't just something that happens to teenage girls. They happen to men and women of all ages and backgrounds, and they happen for a reason. Furthermore, even those of us without eating disorders are almost universally caught up in our own obsessions as well. She challenges her audiences to ask themselves the question of how they, too, are engaged in an eating disordered culture, and how they can begin to change that in their own lives. The question and answer period that follows the talk allows for great dialogue, and never fails to be an exciting and vital part of the presentation. MADNESS: A BIPOLAR LIFE This presentation jumps in with a reading from Hornbacher’s bestselling memoir Madness: A Bipolar Life, which sets the stage for her story of being nearly beaten by, but ultimately triumphing over, severe and persistent mental illness. Audiences of this presentation often have many questions about what the different mental illnesses are, what they feel like, and how we can be supportive to people who have them. This presentation is a lively, fascinating way to educate the general audience, while also speaking directly to listeners who suffer from mental illness themselves. This is an inspirational presentation, and in it she testifies to the real possibility for healthy, satisfying lives for mentally ill people. Hornbacher talks about the way she makes this happen in her own life through both action and acceptance, and she urges listeners to think about how they can make it happen in theirs. In the discussion period that follows, people have the opportunity to ask a wide range of questions about mental illness, how to support mentally ill people, and how to approach specific challenges in the struggle. This portion of the presentation is often full of laughter, identification, and the excitement of talking about hope. ALWAYS MORE: A JOURNEY THROUGH ADDICTION In Hornbacher's years of sobriety, she's had the great opportunity to work with many people. This presentation begins with the story of her years of drug and alcohol addiction, focusing on the particular needs of the audience to whom she's speaking. In schools she talks about the pervasive problems with drugs and alcohol in peer groups, at conventions she talks about the joys and rewards of a sober life, as well as any specific recovery-related topic that group wants to focus on. She is currently at work on two books about recovery for Hazelden Publishers. The recipient of a host of awards for journalism and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, Marya has lectured at universities around the country, taught writing and literature, and published in academic and literary journals since 1992. She is author of the critically acclaimed novel The Center of Winter. Hornbacher lives in Minneapolis. Visit: www.maryahornbacher.com WASTED: A MEMOIR OF ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA Powerful, compelling, intelligent...A memoir that has the tension and movement of a well-paced novel...You simply cannot put Wasted down.” — San Diego Union-Tribune "A gritty, unflinching look at eating disorders...written from the raw, disintegrated center of young pain....Hornbacher describes [such phenomena] with a stark candor that captures both their pain and underlying purposes....She is wise beyond her years." — New York Times Book Review “Hornbacher writes like an artist, shaping her themes without self-pity or self-importance, wondering with intelligence why the dissatisfaction everyone feels with life is so often blamed on the female body” — Village Voice “A scary but tentativelyu triumphant memoir....[Told] with grace, sharp humor and candor’’ — San Francisco Chronicle “Stunning....A tortured-yet-compelling account of a life spent bingeing, purging, and starving....A primal scream of a story sure to resonate even with those who possess a healthy attitude toward food and weight.” —Glamour A BIPOLAR LIFE “With the same intimately revelatory and shocking emotional power that marked her earlier book, Hornbacher guides us through her labyrinth of psychological demons, characterized by public meltdowns and private craziness, which led to multiple stays in locked wards.” —ELLE Magazine “In Madness, Marya Hornbacher takes us on a searing but heroic journey. This book is impossible to put down. Hornbacher not only survived a nightmare, but she emerged with deep understanding and insight. She has written a stunning memoir of anguish and resilience, terror and transformation.” —David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy |