New Hampshire Seacoast essayist Merrill Black recounts her experience with mental illness, domestic violence, public assistance, recovery from addiction and bereavement to illustrate the power of connection and disclosure to heal and teach.

Merrill Black is a Seacoast, NH-based writer with thirty years experience in the nonprofit sector. A 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Creative Nonfiction, she holds a BA in American Studies from Marlboro College and an MA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of New Hampshire. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, New York Press, UnderWired Magazine and More.com, as well as in the anthology Autobiographical Writing Across the Disciplines, published by Duke University Press and Becoming Portsmouth, published by The History Press. She lives in Portsmouth with her husband, Seacoast artist Russell Aharonian, and works part-time at Ceres Bakery. An adjunct online faculty member in Southern New Hampshire University’s Creative Non-fiction program, she is currently working on a memoir.
Merrill Black is a Seacoast writer whose essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times and the local anthology Becoming Portsmouth. She is currently working on a memoir about mental illness. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx