My Kindle Singles memoir, Walk Away, was published July 5, 2016 under my previous name, Michele Leavitt. Here's the editor's blurb: "Walk Away is the unflinching and inspiring story of how author Michele Leavitt lived through the violence of her adolescence, how that violence haunted her through her escape to college and law school, and how she ultimately came to rise out of it to a place of possibility. It begins with lessons in self-defense from convicted killers, as well as a piece of advice: Do whatever it takes to be the one who walks away. Hard-edged but motivating, this is a story about overcoming the bleakest of obstacles." My book-length poetry collection, Back East, won the inaugural Michael Macklin First Book Prize and was published by Moon Pie Press in 2013. An excerpt from my in-progress memoir manuscript, “Hidden in a Suitcase,” won the summer 2017 New Millennium Nonfiction Award. "No Trespassing," an excerpt from Walk Away won The Ohio State University’s 2010 William Allen Award for creative nonfiction, was published in The Journal, and received a notable listing in 2011 Best American Essays. Recent work appears in O, The Oprah Magazine, Shondaland, The Rumpus, Guernica, The North American Review,, and Catapult. Check out my website for links to many of these: www.michelesharpe.com. A high school dropout, hepatitis C survivor, adoptee and former trial attorney, I live in North Central Florida.