“The 21 artists, who share their stories of madness, trauma, addiction, abuse and self-destruction, and their relationship to art, leave no vulnerable detail unwritten.”—Shameless A visceral look at the bizarre entanglement of destructive and creative forces, Live Through This is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork, and photography. It explores the use of art to survive abuse, incest, madness and depression, and the often deep-seated impulse toward self-destruction including cutting, eating disorders, and addiction. Here, some of our most compelling cartoonists, novelists, poets, dancers, playwrights, and burlesque performers traverse the pains and passions that can both motivate and destroy women artists, and mark a path for survival. Taken together, these artful reflections offer an honest and hopeful journey through a woman's silent rage, through the power inherent in struggles with destruction, and the ensuing possibilities of transforming that burning force into the external release of art. With contributions by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Patricia Smith, Cristy C. Road, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Stephens, Carolyn Gage, Eileen Myles, Fly, Diane DiMassa, Bonfire Madigan Shive, Inga Muscio, Kate Bornstein, Toni Blackman, Nicole Blackman, Silas Howard, Daphne Gottleib, and Stephanie Howell.

When a relationship trespasses the boundaries of trust, the consequences are complex in this nuanced page-turner from “a formidable talent” (Booklist). If Coley Sterling’s best friend would stop hating her, if her dance-team captains would lighten up, if her friends would stop asking her about Reece, the geeky sax player she’s crushing on—then her life would be perfect. Right? After all, Coley’s stepdad is a successful attorney who gives Coley and her siblings everything, and her mother will stop at nothing to keep them all happy and safe—including having escaped ten years ago from the abuse of Coley’s real father. But Coley is keeping a lot of secrets. She won’t admit—not even to herself—that her almost-perfect life is her own carefully crafted façade. Now, Coley and Reece are getting closer, and a decade’s worth of Coley’s lies are on the verge of unraveling—along with the life she thought she knew.

Nirvana almost single-handedly brought grunge into the popular consciousness with their seminal album Nevermind. From their underground roots in the Pacific Northwest, the group achieved world fame and Kurt Cobain had the mantle of 'spokesperson for a generation' thrust upon him. This was, arguably, the last era of great rock music, and it is shrouded in stories and rumours. Author Everett True, the man who introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love and brought grunge to the outside world, gives an inspired insider's account of the grunge scene. Featuring rare photographs and exclusive interviews with members of Nirvana,Hole, Soundgarden and Babes in Toyland, Everett True takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the lives, the music, the personalities, the legends and the laughs. Everett True was the first outside journalist to cover the Seattle music scene in early 1989 and saw up-close the birth and development of the rock phenomenon which changed the face of alternative and mainstream music forever. This book contains exclusive interviews with people close to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and photographs of members of Nirvana, Hole, and many other bands of the scene.

An “achingly beautiful” memoir about a mother’s mission to rescue her two teenage daughters from the streets and bring them back home (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). After a miserably failed marriage, Debra Gwartney moves with her four young daughters to Eugene, Oregon, for a new job and what she hopes will be a new life for herself and her family. But the two oldest, fourteen-year-old Amanda and thirteen-year-old Stephanie, blame their mother for what happened, and one day the two run off together—to the streets of their own city, then San Francisco, then nowhere to be found. The harrowing subculture of the American runaway, with its random violence, its dangerous street drugs, and its patchwork of hidden shelters, is captured with brilliant intensity in Live Through This as this panicked mother sets out to find her girls—examining her own mistakes and hoping against hope to bring them home and become a family again, united by forgiveness and love. “For all the raw power of this true story and the fearless honesty of the voice telling it, what sticks out for me is the literary craft that shapes every sentence. Debra Gwartney has seen clear to the bottom of her experience, purged it of self-righteousness, and emerged with a stunningly humane and humbled awareness of life’s troubles” —Phillip Lopate

An upbeat, feminist analysis of Hole's landmark 1994 album and its controversial creator, Courtney Love, explores themes of womanhood, desire, disgust, self-destruction, survival and fame. Original.

90s nostalgia is entering full bloom. Indeed, one of 2021's biggest tours is poised to be Alanis Morrisette with openers Garbage and Liz Phair. This is the music Generation X came of age listening to--the songs that millennials cut their teeth on. In Lived Through This, seasoned photographer and music enthusiast Mike Hipple shares personal and engaging photographic portraits of dozens of the 90s' greatest artists. Each portrait is paired with an interview that reveals the details of each musician's time in the limelight and where their lives have taken them. Their words and images are open, honest, inspiring, and revealing, offering profound and humorous memories and gems of wisdom that will resonate with fans and music lovers alike. From Nivana's Krist Novoselic to Magnapop's Ruthie Morris and Linda Hopper to Arrested Development's Speech, the portraits and stories featured in Lived Through This cover a wide range of rock, rap, and indie stars. Whether they were chart toppers or underground sensations, the artists in Hipple's epic collection tell the story and reawaken the songs of a pivotal generation of musicians.

There are many obstacles to overcome in life. Some will be harder than others but all will make a difference. All the hardships I faced in my life made me who I am today. In order to remain strong, you have to remind yourself that everything is okay even when it seems it is not. Sharing your story can be a terrifying thing, but your given testimony could save someone's life. In the words of the great Carlton Weekly, "Made this for the people who feel hopeless." This book is devoted to all those who feel alone. If you've ever faced rape, abandonment, betrayal, or heartbreak - You are not alone. Live to tell your story.

Helping the Suicidal Person provides a highly practical toolbox for mental health professionals. The book first covers the need for professionals to examine their own personal experiences and fears around suicide, moves into essential areas of risk assessment, safety planning, and treatment planning, and then provides a rich assortment of tips for reducing the person’s suicidal danger and rebuilding the wish to live. The techniques described in the book can be interspersed into any type of therapy, no matter what the professional’s theoretical orientation is and no matter whether it’s the client’s first, tenth, or one-hundredth session. Clinicians don’t need to read this book in any particular order, or even read all of it. Open the book to any page, and find a useful tip or technique that can be applied immediately.

From the outside, fifteen-year-old Coley Sterling's life seems imperfect but normal, but for years she has buried her shame and guilt over a relationship that crossed the line and now that she has a chance at having a real boyfriend, Reece, the lies begin to unravel.

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious. Her intelligence, ambition and appetite for confrontation have made her a target in a music industry still dominated by men. As Kurt Cobain's wife she was derided as an opportunistic groupie; as his widow she is pitied, and scorned, as the madwoman in rock's attic. Yet Hole's second album, Live Through This, awoke a feminist consciousness in a generation of young listeners. Live Through This arrived in 1994, at a tumultuous point in the history of American music. Three years earlier Nirvana's Nevermind had broken open the punk underground, and the first issue of a zine called Riot Grrrl had been published. Hole were of this context and yet outside of it: too famous for the strict punk ethics of riotgrrrl, too explicitly feminist to be the world's biggest rock band. Live Through This is an album about girlhood and motherhood; desire and disgust; self-destruction and survival. There have been few rock albums before or since so intimately concerned with female experience. It is an album that changed lives – so why is Courtney Love's achievement as a songwriter and musician still not taken seriously, two decades on?