Jessie Cole - Staying

Australian author Jessie Cole had an idyllic childhood - in the late 1970s her parents left suburbia to live in an isolated part of northern New South Wales, where Cole and her brother Jake ran free in the rainforest. When Cole was 12 her half-sister, Zoe, took her own life and her father, a psychiatrist, suffered extreme mental illness and committed suicide six years later. Staying is Cole's memoir and a story of despair, courage and healing. Cole is the author of Darkness on the Edge of Town and Deeper Water. Her work has also appeared in many Australian publications, including Best Australian Essays, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Island Magazine, The Lifted Brow, Good Weekend, Big Issue, Daily Life and The Guardian. She still lives in the family home where she grew up.