My Book Announcement
Ten years ago, I was planning my escape.
It wasn’t a quick jump out the window in the middle of the night. I didn’t get away by running desperately down the street (although I had done that once—really twice—before).
Leaving my parents’ house took a long time—years if you count the time it took for me to realize I was being emotionally, spiritually, and financially abused.
My family had been trapped in the quicksand of the Christian patriarchy movement for almost as long as I can remember. I had always been told as a child that my calling in life would be to marry and have children. I had no other options—no college, no job, no choice. Until my God-chosen husband appeared, I was made to live under the authority of my controlling father. They called girls like me stay-at-home daughters.
Long story short: when I was twenty-five, I got out. I had saved up enough money from teaching piano lessons to other homeschooled kids that I could buy a plane ticket to Michigan, where my best friend, the man I was excited to marry (despite my father’s disapproval), was waiting for me so we could start our life together.
I left my father’s control and found my way home.
Five years ago, I was taking my first creative nonfiction class.
I’ve been a writer for as long as I’ve been able to read, and writing has been a way for me to cope during the darkest of times—almost always through fiction. But in that nonfiction class, the whole world seemed to open up when I discovered new ways to process my experience through creativity. Braided narrative, lyrical language, personal reflection, research—I learned tools to create something beautiful with my own story.
I stopped hiding my past and started writing it down, sharing bits of it in writing workshops at college. My teachers took the time to treat my experience as important, while still challenging me to push myself to be a stronger writer, to find a way to communicate in a way that would resonate with others.
And that’s when the first elements of my memoir were formed, like hidden movement in the deep of a dormant volcano.
I’ve worked on this book for so long it’s hard to believe I finally get to say this:
My memoir, tentatively titled Rift: My Story of Escaping the Stay-at-Home-Daughter Movement, is going to be published in spring 2024 with Eerdmans Publishing!
Here’s a quick synopsis of the book:
Rift is a literary memoir weaving together lyrical meditations on geology with the shifting terrain of Cait West's own story of growing up in a strict religious movement that glorified fathers and subjugated women, forcing her to live at home after graduating from homeschool, until she finally escaped, only to find that independence does not ensure freedom, that abuse and trauma have a long reach, and that patriarchy is a shadow with no edge.
I’m thrilled that I’ll be working with editor Lisa Ann Cockrel to get my manuscript to the finish line. I’ve been familiar with her work for some time, and the first time we spoke, I felt that she really understood my vision for this project. I know my story is in good hands with the Eerdmans team, and I’m so excited for the work ahead.
Amazing that in a little over a year, this manuscript—this river delta of words and tears and memories and anxiety and catharsis—will be an actual book on someone else’s bookshelf.
My literary agent, Trinity McFadden, whom I met shortly after leaving the movement, has been a great encourager, an amazing friend, and a champion for this story as she’s worked to find a good home for it.
My mentor from college, Laura Julier, was the first to look at my full, almost-finished manuscript and gave me the feedback I needed to take the fragments and fit them together.
I’m forever grateful for all the people who have supported me in this process, keeping me sane, reassuring me that I could do this, proving that my story matters—our stories matter.
Thank you for being part of this adventure with me. I’m excited for what’s next and that I can finally share (soon) what I’ve been working on with you all in mind.