ABOUT LEA GROVER

Lea Grover is a writer, blogger, and speaker in Chicago. She published her first poem at nine years old, a sonnet inspired by Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” Through adolescence, she was often included in poetry journals but began studying prose after admission to college at the age of fourteen. While following her polymath interests through seven universities and several years of national service, she continued to publish poems and short stories inspired by her observation of human nature and the complex struggles facing people she encountered while working for the Chicago Housing Authority, living in an artist community, and as a vocal survivor of repeated sexual trauma.

In 2007, her then-fiancé was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer (glioblastoma), and everyone in her life began asking her to write a book. However, Lea did not believe the story of his cancer was hers to tell. It wasn’t until after her battle with Postpartum Depression years later that she began to understand the nuances of diseases of the brain, how similar the effects of brain cancer and mental illness can be. Seeing her own PTSD with the benefits of hindsight, reflecting on her mental illness experience and the experience of her husband and his life with brain cancer, she finally sat down to write the story: “When and Always,” coming soon!

Lea’s writing is featured in a dozen anthologies and textbooks, including “Listen To Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now.” She speaks about sex positive parenting and on behalf of the RAINN Speakers Bureau.