When I left home at the age of twenty-five, I had no idea what my path would look like. I had no story to tell. I had spent my entire life in the Christian Patriarchy and Stay-at-Home-Daughter Movements, only to realize that I didn’t belong. My story had always been written for me, and now I was taking over the pen for the first time.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

I used to think I could rewrite my whole life, come clean somehow, and pretend I never had a past of oppression and abuse. I didn’t want to be the victim, the pitied, the weak. But the years have taught me that there is no easy way to delete bitter memories or old scars. I can’t separate the good from the bad. So, I’m moving forward, not chained to the past, but liberated from it, carrying with me the old stories, if only as a preface to the new.

After I got out, I studied creative writing and publishing at Michigan State University and served on the editorial team for Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. My work has been featured in 3288 Review, Dunes Review, Fourth Genre, Hawai`i Pacific Review, The Revealer, and Religion Dispatches.

I work full time as a book editor, and I also serve on the editorial board for Tears of Eden, a nonprofit providing resources for survivors of spiritual abuse, and cohost the podcast Survivors Discuss.

My debut memoir, Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy, will be available on April 30, 2024.

The story behind the name…

I use the pseudonym Cait West in my best attempt to reclaim a sense of matrilineal heritage. West is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, and by taking her name I seek to honor her and the women in my family who are strong, wise, and full of faith. As I grew up, my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother were the strongest examples of faith I had in my life—women who were selfless, who survived hardship, who worked hard, and who loved with their whole heart.