The Answer Is in the Wound

“Lyrical and brutal, intimate and culturally relevant. I’ve never read anything like it.”—Maggie Smith
An intimate, linked, lyrical essay collection focusing on the longer-lasting effects of trauma and PTSD on survivors—challenging a culture in which violence against women is normalized and illuminating the nonlinear, complex nature of recovery—from the acclaimed author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl
An affecting memoir-in-essays from the acclaimed author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, The Answer Is in the Wound is a radical examination of the fractured, nonlinear nature of life after trauma. In this remarkable account of her own road to healing, Kelly Sundberg challenges a culture in which violence against women is normalized and writes against the implicit demand for survivors to “get over it.”
Kelly Sundberg’s abusive marriage nearly broke her, and finding the courage to leave and begin the difficult process of putting herself back together was only the beginning of her story. Deeply courageous, The Answer Is in the Wound deftly explores the trials and joys Sundberg encountered not only as a newly single parent but also as someone in full pursuit of life. She developed an appreciation for new spiritual practices, reclaimed her body through tattoos, and even became “the problem” rather than going along to get along in her professional life. From erasure poetry crafted from emails and a court-mandated apology letter from her ex-husband, to engaging with the research of some of the most prominent voices in fifty years of trauma psychiatry and psychology —from Judith Herman and Peter A. Levine to Bessel van der Kolk—The Answer Is in the Wound is a profound meditation on trauma and its lasting effects.
With the formal innovation and radical vulnerability of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and the cerebral precision of Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, Sundberg’s breathtaking collection offers a redemptive arc for trauma survivors and vital insight into what makes healing possible.

Kelly Sundberg is the author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl, published by Harper in 2018. Her essays have been featured in Best American Essays in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Los Angeles Review, and The Rumpus. She has a PhD in creative nonfiction and she lives, writes, and edits in Columbus, Ohio.