I Am Subject

As a teacher of writing and Women’s Studies, I have spent many years studying the lives and works of women writers. I Am Subject: Sharing our Truths to Reclaim Our Selves is a memoir that combines my own history with the words and experiences of other writers to examine the issues that perplex contemporary women. This work conveys women’s experiences by weaving together memoir, literary texts and criticism, and student reflection. Simply knowing that others have struggled can bring women out of isolated suffering to a deeper sense of awareness and understanding. Our early interpersonal relationships, combined with the societal and cultural messages we receive, influence all of our subsequent actions, including our sexual experiences, our intimate relationships, our decision to have children or not have children, our career choices, and our tendency to deal with life’s challenges either constructively or destructively. I Am Subject provides a safe space for women to increase their awareness regarding where they have come from and where they are going as they move forward into the next stages of their lives. It is my hope that those who read these words will sit with them, give thought to how they might apply to their own lives and the lives of women they know, and begin their own conversations regarding how to best turn increased awareness into action.

As a teacher of writing and Women’s Studies, I have spent many years studying the lives and works of women writers. I Am Subject: Sharing our Truths to Reclaim Our Selves is a memoir that combines my own history with the words and experiences of other writers to examine the issues that perplex contemporary women. This work conveys women’s experiences by weaving together memoir, literary texts and criticism, and student reflection. Simply knowing that others have struggled can bring women out of isolated suffering to a deeper sense of awareness and understanding. Our early interpersonal relationships, combined with the societal and cultural messages we receive, influence all of our subsequent actions, including our sexual experiences, our intimate relationships, our decision to have children or not have children, our career choices, and our tendency to deal with life’s challenges either constructively or destructively. I Am Subject provides a safe space for women to increase their awareness regarding where they have come from and where they are going as they move forward into the next stages of their lives. I hope that those who read these words will sit with them, give thought to how they might apply to their own lives and the lives of women they know, and begin their own conversations regarding how to best turn increased awareness into action. I Am Subject: Sharing Our Truths to Reclaim Our Selves is the result of fifteen years of research, over forty years of life experience, and my own lessons learned in the classroom. This work is my passion, and in these pages I try to do justice to the life lessons of the women who came before me, so that together we might positively influence those who follow us. This work provides insight into the complicated choices women make, and offers a fresh perspective and positive alternatives for women to embrace in order to truly discover and pursue their genuine life paths. It is my dream that perhaps, through my insights and difficult lessons learned, and through sharing the life lessons of others, readers might never have to visit that dark place of self-doubt and loathing, and instead can make their way in this world knowing that their stories matter.

As a teacher, speaker and writer, Diane DeBella has spent twenty years examining women writers, women’s history and feminist issues. She currently teaches at the University of Colorado in Boulder and has work published in numerous journals, including California Quarterly, Vermont Literary Review and Montpelier. She has received the CU Women Who Make a Difference Award and the CU-LEAD Alliance Faculty Appreciation Award. Through her organization I am Subject, Diane offers workshops and presentations on issues that affect girls and women of all ages and during all life stages, providing a safe space to increase understanding and awareness, as well as develop a stronger system of support and community. To learn more, visit www.iamsubject.com.