Description

*Content Warning: Discussion of sexual abuse*

Sheila O’Connor is here to discuss her book Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions and the journey of uncovering the story of her grandmother who was incarcerated at age 15 for so-called "immorality". She also explores how breaking family secrets, embracing imaginative empathy, and uncovering historical truths can help us heal intergenerational trauma and honor the ancestral gifts carried within our bloodlines.  

About Sheila

Sheila O’Connor is the author of six award-winning novels for adults and young people. She's won the Minnesota Book Award, the Michigan Prize for Literary Fiction, and the International Reading Award. Her books have also been included on several Best Books of the Year lists.

She has been the recipient of several winning grants and fellowships. She is a professor emeritus at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she also served as the fiction editor for Waterstone Review. Her book, Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments: Facts and Fictions is based on the research she did on her unknown maternal grandmother and the little-known practice of incarcerating girls, sometimes as young as eight years old for “immorality” in Minnesota and across the United States.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Recognize the Physical Impact of Hidden Family Secrets: Even when family secrets are kept from you, your body and intuition pick up on missing narratives, often manifesting as unexplained emotional blocks, mental health struggles, or somatic responses.
• Understand the Historical Systemic Incarceration of Young Girls: Historically across America, thousands of young girls and children (as young as eight) were sentenced to long prison terms at reformatories under vague charges like "immorality" or "incorrigibility," particularly if they were victims of sexual abuse or became pregnant.
• Harness Imaginative Empathy for Healing: When official historical records fall short, imaginative empathy allows us to go beyond clinical facts to feel what our ancestors experienced, restoring dignity, vindication, and depth to their stolen stories.
• Break Intergenerational Repetition Loops: Unacknowledged trauma often repeats across generations. Bringing historical facts to light breaks the pattern of erasure and secret-keeping, allowing families to stop passing down inherited burdens.
• Reclaim Ancestral Gifts Alongside Trauma: Lineages do not just pass down survival wounds; they also carry artistic talents, musical abilities, and deep creative gifts that reconnect descendants to their ancestors' true essence.

Resources

The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline Study

Minnesota History Center

Connect with Sheila

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Theme music written and performed by Carter Penny.

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A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.