Photo by Kelly Spottswood
Amelia Zachry is the author of the new memoir Enough: A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood. She is also an advocate for sexual assault survivors and people with mental illness. Born and raised in Malaysia, she lives in Lexington, Kentucky.
Q: What inspired you to write this memoir?
A: Writing was something new to me. The stories have been buried, aching to come out for years.
I was originally inspired by my two daughters, the need for me to share with them, knowing the young women they were going to grow into. I wanted for them to understand the realities of my past from my point of view.
I needed to share the inner turmoil and struggles no one saw. The strength and courage we are capable of even if in the moment we could feel wrung out.
Then I was forced to think about how many young women out there who have shared similar experiences as I did, who were silenced, who were in isolation through the pain. I felt the need to reach out through my pages to them, a consolation, a hand in solidarity, a voice in advocacy from my truths.
I was inadvertently inspired by the silence I had endured and the voice I found through writing.
Q: You describe some very difficult experiences--what impact did it have on you to write the book?
A: Writing through trauma is such self-inflicted pain. Writing, endless editing, proofreading, all the things writing a book entails were repeated re-traumatization.
I was reliving the minute moments of pain every time I went back to the page to make a situation clearer or to remember details that I could have forgotten. I was processing my trauma on the page.
Writing the trauma uncovered emotions that I didn’t even have before writing. Before, I was engulfed in the feelings of disgust, shame, guilt, anger, disappointment, and frustration.
While writing I saw myself as if in third person view and I found compassion and love for myself. I was able to detach from the wounded self and find reprieve, resolution, and ultimately peace. This process has definitely been as much therapeutic as cathartic.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I considered the main theme of this book, full of suffering and struggles; I felt resolute that I can finally let go. I wasn’t going through any of the pain again, it was no longer going to cloud my days, I have had enough.
The feelings of inadequacies throughout my life were strewn across the pages, now a reminder that I am enough. I have had enough and I am enough.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from your story?
A: Hope. I want readers to take away the message of a hopeful present, a hopeful future. We live in a world of chaos and so much pain. Whatever the source may be, we so often mask it with our brave faces in isolation.
I hope reading my book will lead my readers to allow themselves some grace and reach out for support as they need. I want them to believe that however dark it may seem, there is a dimly lit path to peace.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am currently focused on the release of Enough and my mental health advocacy work here in Lexington, Kentucky. I am also so glad to be finding time to enjoy my beautiful family, who have been unending in their support for me through these past few years while I wrote my memoir.
I still write regularly on my blog, ameliazachry.com, and am entertaining some ideas I have floating in my head for another memoir.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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