How to Write a Suicide Note: Serial Essays That Saved a Woman's Life

by Sherry Quan Lee

Overview

"How to Write a Suicide Note," a collection of poetry, is the second book in the “Reflections of America Series”. It is a haunting portrait of the daughter of a Black mother and a Chinese father. Sherry dares to be who she isn't supposed to be, feel what she isn't supposed to feel, and destroys racial and gender myths as she integrates her bi-racial identity into all that she is. Through her raw honesty and vulnerability, Sherry captures a range of emotions most people are afraid to confront, or even share. Her work is a gift to the mental health community."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940011895104
Publisher:	Loving Healing Press
Publication date:	11/13/2010
Series:	Reflections of America Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	84
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sherry Quan Lee is the author of “How to Write a Suicide Note” and “Chinese Blackbird”. Lee approaches writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic. Her journey as a writer began before she was born; history plays an important part in who we are (her mother is "Negro" and her father is Chinese). Lines on her curriculum vitae show "opportunities and blessings" that focus and center her life as a writer. Between the lines are the stories she writes that are the process, the plot that literally move her forward. She is the artist and the art: textured, vibrant—visible. Learn more about Lee and her work at

Editorial Reviews

Lee's poetry in “How to Write a Suicide Note” is one of the few that probe into the origin of emotional trauma as something beyond the individual; living as a Black-Chinese woman in a white-dominated society, her status as a woman of a minority class culturally pressured her into becoming (and acting) someone she really was not; hence, the pain of deprivation from the natural right of self-expression. “How to Write a Suicide Note” is a unique read, full of life!

Ernest Dempsey

Lee’s book consists of a series of poignant essays. She writes that her attempts at suicide were cries to be heard. It also seemed like she was making the attempts to kill parts of herself. The people that can relate to her experiences will find healing in knowing that they are not alone. "How to Write a Suicide Note" is an excellent reading choice for readers, especially women with multicultural backgrounds.

Paige Lovitt

Lee's poetry in “How to Write a Suicide Note” is one of the few that probe into the origin of emotional trauma as something beyond the individual; living as a Black-Chinese woman in a white-dominated society, her status as a woman of a minority class culturally pressured her into becoming (and acting) someone she really was not; hence, the pain of deprivation from the natural right of self-expression. “How to Write a Suicide Note” is a unique read, full of life!

News Blaze - Ernest Dempsey

Lee’s book consists of a series of poignant essays. She writes that her attempts at suicide were cries to be heard. It also seemed like she was making the attempts to kill parts of herself. The people that can relate to her experiences will find healing in knowing that they are not alone. "How to Write a Suicide Note" is an excellent reading choice for readers, especially women with multicultural backgrounds.

Reader Views - Paige Lovitt