When I left home at the age of twenty-five, I had no idea what my path would look like. I had no story to tell. I had spent my entire life in the Christian Patriarchy and Stay-at-Home-Daughter Movements, only to realize that I didn’t belong. My story had always been written for me, and now I was taking over the pen for the first time.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

I used to think I could rewrite my whole life, come clean somehow, and pretend I never had a past of oppression and abuse. I didn’t want to be the victim, the pitied, the weak. But the years have taught me that there is no easy way to delete bitter memories or old scars. I can’t separate the good from the bad. So, I’m moving forward, not chained to the past, but liberated from it, carrying with me the old stories, if only as a preface to the new.

After I got out, I studied creative writing and publishing at Michigan State University and served on the editorial team for Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. My work has been featured in 3288 Review, Dunes Review, Fourth Genre, Hawai`i Pacific Review, The Revealer, Religion Dispatches, and Newsweek.

I work full time as a book editor, and I also serve on the editorial board for Tears of Eden, a nonprofit providing resources for survivors of spiritual abuse, and cohost the podcast Survivors Discuss.

My first book, Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy, is available now wherever you get your books. Rift has been featured in Salon, The New York Times, and CNN.

The story behind the name…

I use the pseudonym Cait West in my best attempt to reclaim a sense of matrilineal heritage. West is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, and by taking her name I seek to honor her and the women in my family who are strong, wise, and full of faith. As I grew up, my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother were the strongest examples of faith I had in my life—women who were selfless, who survived hardship, who worked hard, and who loved with their whole heart.