You Are No Longer in Trouble - by Nicole Stellon O'Donnell (Paperback)

About the Book

"A deeply compelling portrait of our educational system from the bottom up and the inside out."

Book Synopsis

Part memoir and part investigation into the educational system, this collection of linked shorts is a compelling portrait of one teacher's family history, her experience of being a student, and the persona she has to wear in the classroom.

Review Quotes

"You Are No Longer In Trouble is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. It's for anyone who has ever been in school, as student or teacher, administrator or aide. It's for every being working so hard to be good or do better in this mysterious world. It's for people with excellent memories and people who forget too much. An extremely evocative, superbly written, deep dive into classrooms, hallways, and the precious human heart." --Naomi Shihab Nye "Nicole Stellon O'Donnell's startling and capacious collection, You Are No Longer in Trouble, telescopes between late-seventies suburban Chicago and contemporary Alaska. Student becomes teacher; daughter becomes mother. These shifting identities organically engage issues of place, the gendered body, and the economy of labor. . . . Deft with the prose poem form, O'Donnell's lines can be a choppy, roiling surf, or become inviting and even languorous, but always with a potent undertow. This book gives me a new understanding of the attentions and estrangements prescribed by America's approach to schooling. More importantly, this book has a rich, complicated heart." --Sandra Beasley, author of Count the Waves

About the Author

Nicole Stellon O'Donnell lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. A recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Award in teaching, she teaches students in a juvenile detention facility. Her writing has received support from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation.