Support Jean on Her Journey to Finish Her Book

I'm Jean Alger, a former English professor who left my academic career in search of a life that is more true to who I am.

I taught college for 15 years, beginning in 2008 when I started my MA program, and ending in May of 2023 when I submitted grades for the final time. A few years before that, in 2017, when I was in the first semester of my tenure-track position at a community college in Southern Colorado, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time. At the end of the month, I had over 50,000 words towards my memoir.

I completed NaNoWriMo a few more times, racking up the word count, but I didn’t spend much time on writing outside of those 30 days in November. My energy was taken by teaching and all of the other work that comes with an academic career.

Last summer, I took a class called “Writing the Scene” with Katherine E. Standefer, author of Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Discover the Cost of Saving a Life. I was inspired by this class, and set into revising 200,000 words into something.

And then I stalled out.

My goal is to finish the memoir this year, or at least have a full draft complete, even if it needs another round (or more) of edits. For my 40th birthday, I took a trip to visit my birthplace, and it was transformative and changed the planned trajectory of my book.

Months later, and I’m still not writing my book.

My lack of writing is, partly, a discipline problem, along with needing community support and mentorship. My writing always comes after work, after people vying for my attention and time. I’m still deprogramming from my academic life that told me my personal writing was secondary to my work as an academic. I’m still grappling with the struggles of telling my story in the first place, grappling with the feeling that my story isn’t worth telling.

Enter Katherine Standefer, and her offering, The River: A 5-Month Memoir Group. This offering will provide me with community, mentorship, and a container for finishing my book. As soon as I read the post online, I knew I needed this class, and I ended up being the first one to register.

This is a large financial commitment (just over $2000 on the payment plan) and my income is not guaranteed at the moment. Also, I just had to replace my car and have a car payment for the first time in a few years.

I could tell myself this is too expensive, it’s not that important.

Yet, I keep coming back to my book. My story. I need to write it. Writing about trauma is not easy, and I have found that I can’t do it alone.

If you have ever wanted to support me in my writing, and in my exit from academia, please consider donating or sharing my fundraising campaign to help me pay for this class with Katherine and a bit more to help me along in my part time retail and freelance life. I know there are many, many things in the world that are asking for our attention, and that need our monetary support. Part of me doesn't feel like my writing matters enough for the support, but part of me knows I have to write this book.

Thank you for taking time to read!