Books

I Am Subject: Sharing Our Truths to Reclaim Our Selves

I Am Subject: Sharing Our Truths to Reclaim Our Selves conveys women’s experiences by weaving together memoir, literary texts and criticism, and student reflection. Simply knowing that others have struggled can bring women out of isolated suffering to a deeper sense of awareness and understanding. I Am Subject provides a safe space for women to increase their awareness regarding where they have come from and where they are going as they move forward into the next stages of their lives. I hope that those who read these words will sit with them, give thought to how they might apply to their own lives and the lives of women they know, and begin their own conversations regarding how to best turn increased awareness into action.

What Readers Are Saying About I Am Subject

DeBella’s book accomplishes what must be accomplished—telling our stories as women to the next generation so that women can walk more confidently toward their goals. ~ Jennifer Lee, feminist filmmaker, Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation

This book needed to be written. Women are so often not educated about other women’s lives. We feel we’re alone, and so we don’t reach out to each other because we’ve somehow learned that other women are our competition. DeBella tells us, through her collective memoir, that sharing our stories is a way to heal ourselves and each other. ~ Tara Walker, faculty, University of Colorado

This book is inspirational, thought-provoking, and unapologetically honest. It is written with so much heart and thought and I simply could not put it down. At times I was in stitches with laughter, at other times brought to tears, and other times simply nodding my head in complete understanding with what was writing–as if someone were putting on paper experiences that I have not yet managed to boil down into words. Diane not only puts these raw and intricate human experiences onto paper, but does so in a beautiful way that made me realize that as humans we can actually feel more connected than ever by the experiences that make us feel more alone and isolated. ~ Amazon Review

An astonishing memoir, with extraordinary disclosure, candor, poise, intelligence and vision. DeBella surfaces patterns and lessons from the lives of famous women writers, her own life and that of young college women she teaches. She is determined that we learn from the past to not repeat the pervasive, subtle and egregious violations and abandonment, of young girls before they have formed their whole selves, and of women, before and after they have surrendered their selves willingly or under pressure, to focus on others. ~ Amazon Review

Enjoy the following video book excerpts from Diane DeBella's book I Am Subject. Click on the video image previews with the play button to view and listen.