What can’t be published: A month-long effort to document a sexual assault led to a detailed, engaging piece too difficult to read

“Writing is risk, yet for me, personal protection is always superseded by the purpose of the craft; it is an act of figuring out a feeling, a way of lending structure to an experience that feels impossibly fraught, a process of giving value to suffering. It is a lone strategy for untangling the webs of chaos, of making pain purposeful, of moving people to comfort and driving them to change.”

My Leaky Body, by Julie Devaney: A rare, profoundly honest and comforting book recommended for anyone enduring the demoralizing maze that is the health-care system

“Her often comical and always candid writing style lets us know the indignity of every examination and treatment, but also reveals the simple, tender moments of life that bring healing and much-needed consolation. She is perfectly suited for this kind of manifesto, because she so nakedly embodies all of our worst fears, and transforms them into hope.”