Suzette Partido on Writing About the Challenges We Face While Holding onto Hope and Possibility

This week’s Memoir Nation show shares a story of poverty, and shines light on a particular kind of story that’s much more prevalent than many of us would like to think. Guest Suzette Partido writes in her new book, Love Will Save Us, Right?, about how she slid into poverty, the struggles she and her family face given that everything is uncertain. And yet, this is a book about love and looking out for family, and about how we survive, and how we brace for what we cannot control. This is a tough but also sweet and heartfelt episode about writing into the challenges of our lives without pity—and even with humor. Suzette Partido has worked as a community developer and non-profit organizer for three decades. She trained as an AIDS chaplain, street outreach worker, substance abuse counselor, reproductive health educator, volunteer coordinator, and public speaker. She managed an HHSA community liaison for children's public behavioral health and served as the Director of Education for a local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She lives with her neurodivergent young adult son and her wife inside a ten-by-ten canvas tent in her mother's backyard in San Diego, and her memoir is Love Will Save Us, Right? .See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.