While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence is a soon to be published memoir from award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger (September 5). Covering topics as personal as family illness and grief or as national as healthcare systems and systemic stigmas toward mental illness, While You Were Out is ripe for book club discussion.

About the book: Growing up in the 1960s in the Chicago suburbs, the Kissingers—eight lively kids with two loving parents—were a tight-knit family, the one with the big house where everyone in the neighborhood gathered. But behind closed doors, some of her siblings were in the throes of bipolar disorder and depression, and two would take their own lives. As the Kissinger family struggled with debilitating mental illnesses, they faced the world with dark humor and an unspoken family rule: never talk about it.  

Recognizing October as Depression and Mental Health Awareness and Screening Month, this virtual author visit will be offered by the Kemmerer Library as a way to continue to raise awareness about depression, mental health and the importance of mental health screenings.