Memoirist. Poet. Essayist. Educator.
Mental Health Advocate.
"Hope is the thing with feathers."
~Emily Dickinson
Featured book:
Out of the Ashes
An inspiring memoir of healing and hope.
Out of the Ashes
An inspiring memoir of healing and hope.
Memoirist. Poet. Essayist. Educator.
Mental Health Advocate.
"Hope is the thing with feathers."
~Emily Dickinson
Sallie Crotty is a writer, educator, and mental health advocate whose mission is to help erase the stigma surrounding mental illness. Her debut book—Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope—brings that mission to the page.
A two-time winner of the Woody Barlow Prize for Poetry, Sallie has published poems, personal essays, and articles in The Drabble, eMerge Magazine, Resources to Recover, the Texas Jewish Post, and Capitalines. Her work has been anthologized in How to Get Home in the Dark: Poems on Mental Health and Healing; The Dairy Hollow Echo (the best selections from The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow's eMerge Magazine); and in eMerge Magazine, The People’s Choice Issue. Her work has been workshopped at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, and she was awarded a residency at The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow.
A former middle school English teacher and private writing tutor, Sallie is known for creative lesson planning and individualized attention. She utilizes a writing and reading workshop approach to help students find their own voices on the page.
Sallie holds a B.A. in English from Sewanee: The University of the South; an Ed.M. from Harvard University; and an MFA in Creative Writing, with a concentration in Poetry, from Queens University of Charlotte.
Sallie is based in Dallas and Western North Carolina.
Stay With Me
Your wings spread on Alki Beach next to Puget Sound.
You are wearing red mittens and the snow glitters near your pink ears.
Your hair like poured butterscotch radiates bright stripes of the morning’s sun.
You giggle, “Look at me! I’m a snow angel!”
and I recall what the nurse said just four years ago,
“Your baby, your beautiful baby, hair like an Irish child" ...
Sunday Coffee
Mama always brewed hot, black coffee on Sunday mornings
We all wondered if that was the special Jesus potion
to bring our Daddy back to us
His whiskey-scorched eyes tried to meet my cornflower ones,
but they could not
Our danced-on, spilled-on hardwoods always got the best of Daddy’s eyes ...
My father became a tree when his brain died
My father became a tree when his brain died
but his heart still fed his withering branches
as the wounds formed on his trunk
in the bed I stood by each day
When I brought my baby to visit, she ran her fingers
around the wounds and I imagined
her crawling snug in the cradle of his neck
Out of the Ashes
With Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope, Sallie Crotty offers a profoundly moving memoir told with unflinching bravery and insight. Her compelling story explores a topic that affects us all: mental health. Detailing a mid-life descent into debilitating despair, she brings the reader on a deeply personal journey. She reveals her struggles, time spent in a psychiatric ward, and how lacking a clear diagnosis almost led to her death. She also describes how proper care and receiving the right diagnosis and treatment can provide hope, stability, and a path to happiness.
This inspiring memoir will help remove some of the stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage those suffering to seek treatment. Crotty provides hope for the many individuals diagnosed every year, their loved ones, and anyone interested in learning more about the lives of those who live with mental illness.
Available at all major booksellers, including:
Sallie Crotty brings the reader along on her journey of despair, hope, and recovery as if looking through the eyes of a phoenix and into the eyes of those present throughout her treatment while reflecting on her past. She educates those with mental health issues on things like misdiagnosis, patient advocacy, and the importance of feeling hopeful and safe.
– Joseph W. Dickson, PhD
Private practice in Houston, TX
Sallie Crotty’s Out of the Ashes is a masterpiece. It will be a beacon of hope during times of despair: Yes, I can find a way to live my life. I can have a career, a family, and friends. All is not lost. On a practical level, Crotty’s retelling is exactly what’s needed to spotlight mental illness and bring it totally out of the darkness and into mainstream society.
– Dr. Susie Wolbe
Author of The Empowered Teacher: Proven Tips for Classroom Success
Sallie's description of her path from despair and confusion to hope and healing is a compelling must-read filled with valuable information for anyone dealing with, or interested in, the challenges of mental health.
– Debi Strong
Behavioral health peer support specialist
Keynotes and Workshops
Sallie's memoir serves as a call to action. She strives to promote a more hopeful and expansive dialogue around mental health issues at the local, state, and national levels. Towards those efforts, she is available for inspiring and interactive keynotes and writing workshops that foster healing. Sallie also leads dynamic workshops that offer guided creative writing exercises in various genres on myriad topics. Some content highlights include:
The balance of mind, body, and spirit in healing
Writing as healing
Hear Sallie Tell Her Story
In February 2018 Sallie told her story to a live audience as part of the Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales) program. The YouTube thumbnail reads: "When educator Sallie Smither Crotty told her gripping tale of confronting mental illness and winning, everyone in the audience could see the power she brought to that fight—and why she won. “My primary clinician hummed ‘Eye of the Tiger’ when I entered the room. I laughed and flexed my muscles. I felt like I had just left the ring: sweaty and victorious. One nurse said, ‘You’ll be one of our success stories, Sallie. You’re ready.’”
Sallie's talk at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle
View Sallie's powerful presentation on Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.
