Hurricane Lessons: A Memoir

To become herself, she must survive the storm.

When Katrina, a 46-year-old Midwestern mother of four, becomes consumed with feelings for her female Pilates instructor, she begins to understand that she is and always has been gay. Her husband suggests they open up their 20+ year marriage, which appears to be a reasonable solution to their dilemma. But when Katrina and her husband have different ideas of what an open marriage should look like, the cracks in their white-picket-fence life are hit with a hurricane-force fury.

Lies. Threats. Abuse. Gaslighting. An involuntary psych ward commitment. Can their marriage survive so many betrayals? Should it?

About Katrina Anne Willis

Katrina Anne Willis's debut novel, Parting Gifts, was published in 2016. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, YourTango, and Mamalode, as well as in numerous anthologies. She was named one of six distinguished authors at the 2016 Indianapolis Book & Author Luncheon, was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2015, and was a 2011 Midwest Writers Fellow. A mother of four quirky and fun adults and two high-anxiety, special needs rescue dogs, Katrina currently writes @surrenderingtosappho on Substack and resides with her partner, Julie, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Praise for Hurricane Lessons: A Memoir

Hurricane Lessons—much like a storm itself—is a stunning, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive memoir, alchemizing pain into light. This is a book of cell rearranging prose–a story many will find they’ve been waiting to read. The power of Willis’s voice will keep readers turning the page, as the music, the poetry, and the pulse of the narrative gains steam like a storm surge and lifts off the page. Willis is an important new voice in American memoir.

— Alice Anderson, Author of Some Bright Morning I’ll Fly Away

This beautifully written book starts with a total loss of self, but builds toward the emboldened reclamation of sexuality, desire, and raw courage that it takes to be a woman in America today. A knockout of a memoir; a tempest of a life.

— Courtney Maum, The Year of the Horses: A Memoir

With language as tender as it is unflinching, Hurricane Lessons traces the quiet ache of a life lived in shadow and the luminous, hard-won joy of stepping into the light. It is a profound reckoning with truth, time, and the courage it takes to rewrite one’s story after years of silence. This memoir reminds us that authenticity isn’t a single moment, but a lifelong unfolding. A necessary and deeply human work.

— Rachel Macy Stafford, New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and certified special education teacher

Hurricane Lessons is a raw, searing memoir about a midlife awakening that masterfully describes the universal push and pull of duty and desire, guilt and longing, and responsibility to others and to ourselves. With lyrical prose and deep vulnerability, Katrina Willis has written a powerful story for all of us about the costs—and ultimately the joys— that come with choosing authenticity.

— Karen Nelson, author of Last Summer at Feather River and The Sunken Town