Author.Editor.Publisher.Collagist
(Me on the Burnside Bridge. Photo by Chloe Caldwell.)
Dear friends,
I’m excited to announce that I have a new essay up on Salon.com. This is a very personal story and one that was not easy to write. I finished it earlier this year and it was rejected by four other publications before Salon snatched it up nine hours after I sent it to them. What a wonderful experience.
I hope you’ll take some time to read it. Thank you so much.
Loved it. Great writing. Right up my alley. I just applied at a bookstore job too. We will see if I manage to do anything that helpful…
Hey Kevin I read your essay and it sounded like it was very lonely and intense to handle those suicidal thoughts. There was a strong part of you that thought life was worth living though.
Most people think about killing themselves at least once in their lives, and they don’t even need to have a history of depression or other mental health issues. People who are affected by suicide actually are more at risk, and it makes sense that you were having those thoughts after your encounter with Chris and having a girlfriend with an Ex who ended their own life very traumatically and dramatically. You have a very high exposure to suicide.
I’m interested in mental health and I volunteer at at a local crisis line, and we serve the national suicide prevention hotline. You can come visit it if you’re interested.
This is more of a general public announcement: Suicide hotlines are actually a great resource for people in an ambivalent position like Kevin’s on that New Years night. Encourage anyone who is signaling suicidal thoughts to promise to call a life line, even if they were as explicit as Chris saying “I’m going to jump off the Burnside Bridge”. Don’t worry that a life line will call the police or send you to the ER just for calling.
Hey,just read your piece in Salon,and it moved me..I completely understand how energizing it is to save someone and then the after – effects that are more on the sad side.Thought you might like to know that I then looked at the online catalog of the public library here (in Austin) and I’m gonna check out “A Common Pornography” and “The Insomniac Reader”.Not such a fan of fiction.I know even better would be I’m gonna go BUY all your books,but it’s tough times all around, amiright?
Thank you for sharing.
Good stuff. I bet that was hard to write. I think life gets exponentially harder with more pressure when one has kids, but it also gives one a lot more reasons to live. Cheers.
Lovely, honest essay that reminds me of how firmly my own son tethers me to this earth.
I really needed to show this specific article, “Suicide and Salon | Kevin Sampsell” together with my friends on facebook .
com. I reallyjust planned to disperse your tremendous publishing!
With thanks, Lilian
Kevin Sampsell 
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