Book Information at a Glance
Title: Conjuring the Hurricane
Subtitle: The Best Way to Save Your Life Is Any Way You Can
Author: Sarah Hanson
Release Date: April 28, 2026
Genre: Memoir-in-Verse / Poetry Memoir
Publisher: Inked Elephant Publishing
Elevator Pitch
A raw memoir-in-verse about leaving a life that was killing you, trusting the body that survived, and rebuilding a new life from the wreckage of trauma, generational inheritance, and self-forgiveness.
​
Told in fragments that mirror the way trauma lives in the body, the book offers one map of survival — not a mandate — and invites readers to imagine their own path toward safety and self-trust.
Primary Themes
Domestic abuse · Generational trauma · Embodied memory · Self-permission · Forgiveness without reconciliation · Rebuilding identity · Resilience · Forbidden love
About the Book: Conjuring the Hurricane
A raw memoir-in-verse that grapples with the nonlinear path of rebuilding identity, trust, and agency after abuse. Poet and advocate Sarah Hanson debuts her poetry collection, Conjuring the Hurricane: The Best Way to Save Your Life is Any Way You Can (April 28, 2026, Inked Elephant Publishing).
When Sarah Hanson realized that she had to leave her abusive marriage, she didn’t have a plan. She had instinct, fear, a body that had learned to brace against danger, and a small, stubborn voice insisting she deserved more. This is the story of what it takes to leave a life that is killing you, and who you can become on the other side.
It is also the story of joy returning slowly, in unexpected shapes, and the quiet work of rebuilding a self you can finally live inside. It is a story not just of breaking, but of becoming, a life rebuilt from the storm up.
Conjuring the Hurricane braids together trauma survival, an unexpected love that helped her recognize herself clearly enough to leave, and the long arc of self-resurrection into a profound narrative, as intimate as a whisper and as powerful as a storm surge. Hanson lays bare the subtle mechanics of control disguised as care, the generational patterns that coil beneath our choices, and the imperfect, deeply human decisions that carve a path toward safety.
For anyone who has ever asked How did she get here? For anyone who has ever whispered How do I get out? For anyone standing at the edge of a life they can no longer endure: This book is a permission slip. Not for the perfect exit. For the exit that saves you.
About the Author: Sarah Hanson
Sarah Hanson is a Minneapolis-based poet, memoirist, and the Architect of Self-Permission. Her work sits at the intersection of trauma, embodiment, generational inheritance, and the lifelong act of returning to oneself. She writes for anyone standing at the edge of a life that no longer fits, quietly wondering if they are allowed to leave.
​
Her writing carries the voice of a wise older sister — not an authority figure, but someone who has walked through the storm and offers what she has learned with warmth, nuance, and steadiness.
​
Her poetry has appeared in Sierra Nevada Review, The Literary Times, Saranac Review, and Anti-Heroin Chic. She is a contributing editor for the anthology Shaking Off the Ashes. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Jay, their three cats, and an ever-growing to-be-read pile.
​
Her advocacy includes HPV vaccination awareness in honor of her late friend Jamie, and a commitment to survivor-centered storytelling rooted in safety, agency, and truth.
Author Identity
Architect of Self-Permission
“I write the permission I needed when I was trying to leave a life that didn’t fit, and I help others conjure the lives they want to live.”
Self-permission is the moment you stop outsourcing your worth, your choices, and your future — and begin authoring a life shaped by your own hands.
​
Core Pillars of Self-Permission
​
-
Bodily Knowing: The body remembers what the mind tries to rationalize.
-
Reclamation: Rebuilding voice, desire, and boundaries after leaving an abusive or constricting life.
-
Truth-Telling: Honoring nonlinear, fragmentary truth.
-
Self-Authorization: You do not have to wait for permission to live the life you want.
​
I write the permission slip. You sign your name.
​
​
​
Interview Topics & Media Angles
Sarah Hanson is available for interviews, panels, podcasts, and literary events on topics including:
​
-
Leaving an abusive relationship
-
Becoming the villain in someone else’s story
-
Trauma as embodied memory
-
Generational trauma and forgiveness without reconciliation
-
Memoir-in-verse and fragmented storytelling
-
Rebuilding identity, desire, and joy after trauma
-
Survivor safety and ethical truth-telling
-
HPV vaccination advocacy and women’s health
-
​
Prepared interview questions, extended talking points, and soundbites are available in the media kit.
Speaking & Events
Signature Talks
​
Sarah speaks to book clubs, conferences, universities, literary festivals, and community organizations.
​
-
The Architecture of Self-Permission
-
How to Leave a Life That Is Killing You
-
Trauma, Memory, and the Body
-
Writing the Fragments: Poetry as Survival
-
Finding Joy After the Storm
​
For speaking engagements and event inquiries, contact:
📧 layne@booksforward.com
​
​