My name is Chad Rose and I have been writing for most of my life including being immensely engrossed into my passion of poetry for all of my adult life. One of my most recent poems was published in the Foliate Oaks literary magazine of February 2013, titled "Sentenced Tourist ", a piece written during my 16-month incarceration and also one of the many works interspersed into the narrative of the book.
Although my book was written over the course of a two-year period, my writer's mind has been working on the manuscript for well over a decade. Much of my life with bipolar has primed me to be knowledgeable in the realms of mental illness, I was an advocate and liaison for many inmates diagnosed with bipolar disorder in jail and have continued to speak in groups, giving presentations on the crucial importance of awareness, education and the proactivity of such illnesses.
UNDERTOW, my newly completed memoir, is an honest, vulnerable, and, in the end, inspiring look at my struggle to live with Bipolar Disorder, a mental illness that led to an unruly drug addiction that nearly cost me my life and eventually led me into prison.
It was while incarcerated that I began writing Undertow, penning page after page on legal notebooks, working in an isolated cell that mirrored the prison Bipolar Disorder had forged in my mind. Facing the slow tick of time, I set out to share my story in the hope that it will shed new light on the human toll of mental illness while helping others who are suffering with similar issues seek professional help.
UNDERTOW also chronicles a childhood filled with abuse, both physical and emotional, and how these difficult early years led to my issues with addiction. However, the book has many light moments, following my travels across the country, where I met and befriended a host of wild characters and fell in and out of love with women with unique stories of their own.
UNDERTOW starts with my walking out of court and into prison, and ends with my release into the world, coming full circle with a new-found wisdom and insight into a mindset of proactive survival that’s now the antithesis of my escaping through drug overdoses and suicidal tendencies.
As such, it is as much a tale about survival as suffering.
My word count is roughly 260,000 words, it is being looked at by other publishers but have not had an offer yet.Inline image 1
Here is a link to an interview I did recently with KGBBAR.LIT (based in New York City), which provides more information on UNDERTOW and its writing.
http://kgbbar.com/lit/non_fiction/undertow_interview_with_chad_curtis_rose
chadcrose.wordpress.com
Brief Bio
Chad Curtis Rose lives in Rochester, New York. His most recent poetry can be found in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. Find him at https://www.facebook.com/chad.rose.3760
March 2, 2014- -
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