On Being an Author in a Trump Era
- Donna Norman Carbone
- May 17
- 5 min read
After the November election, I found myself in a bit of a moral dilemma. I grew up in a household where two topics were taboo. I cannot tell you how often I heard the phrase, “You just don’t talk about religion and politics.” And the proof was there like an open wound. Each time either subject arose at the dinner table, a heated debate ensued. Voices raised and tones became agitated. But, the discussion almost always ended with the maxim, “Let’s agree to disagree.” At the end of the debate, the respect we had for the person of the opposing view hadn’t waned.
Today is a very different story.
I’ve lived through ten presidents; I remember eight of them. At eighteen, I first registered as an independent and have voted for both democratic and republican candidates. Decades later, I switched to the democratic party, so I could vote in the primaries. If I were to name my favorite presidents, I’d choose Reagan, Clinton and Obama, all for very different reasons.
I can say with certainty that I have never felt the caliber of political divide in our country until Donald Trump came onto the political landscape. I went into his first term believing the office of President of the United States was a position to be respected; though, over his tenure and certainly as a result of the insurrection, on and following January 6th, my opinion changed drastically.
In 2023, I became a published author, a dream I’ve had since I was a little girl. I now have two award-winning novels out in the world, and I’m working on a third. To say that I fully embrace and am grateful for every single aspect of my author life would be an understatement. One might say, it was my American dream.
But as an author, I’ve been conflicted regarding how much of my political beliefs I should share or even make known. Shortly after the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, I posted on Instagram a “Vote” graphic, with a picture of me holding my cat. I lost 100 followers within days and got a few nasty comments. One of which was from a reader of both of my novels who had clearly been a fan. She responded to my post saying how disappointed she was in me and saddened that, while she looked up to me as an author, she could no longer support me because of my political views. I pulled back from posting anything that inferred “my side.”
I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to mix my author life with my ideologies as a woman and as an American. I thought about the cost I was willing to leverage–both financial and professional. I feared losing readers if I continued sharing the realities of who I am and what I stand for.
I’ve always believed that in order to connect to readers, I have to share pieces of myself–authentic pieces of myself. I am feminist. I am a woman. I am educated. I have a lot of life experiences and strong beliefs. I support the LGBTQ community; I have relatives and friends and students amongst them. I believe only a woman should decide what to do with her body. I’m an educator who believes in teaching the realities of history, not a skewed version of it. I believe in freedom of speech, not censorship and book banning. I believe that diversity and inclusion makes us stronger. Moreover, I write about women who are all of these things.
I have read Project 2025 or America First, whatever they are calling it these days to mask their agenda. In his just first week of presidency, Mr. Trump signed sixteen executive orders aligned with Project 2025 (MSNBC). Now, I’ve lost count. If you haven’t read Project 2025, I strongly recommend you do so to see the blueprint this administration has in store for our country.
As an author and a teacher of thirty-plus years, I consider myself well-read. I read across a variety of genres and for various purposes. What I once read as dystopian fiction and believed nothing like this could ever come to pass in our country is now scarily relevant, plausible even.
I don’t recommend these books to scare you but for you to become well-informed. They read today more like contemporary fiction. There’s a reason the conservative, right wing are trying to ban these books and that they have already been banned in many states, maybe yours is among them.
RECOMMENDED READING
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
1984, George Orwell
Brave New World, Aldus Huxley
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Night, Elie Weisel
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Project 2025 (linked below)
So, I’ve taken the past several months to further educate myself, to wait and observe, to contemplate.
Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and Holocaust Survivor, wrote
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.”
I taught this book for years. Each time, I was brought to tears by the sheer innocence of the victims, those who would become prisoners of concentration camps.
I saw a powerful Tik Tok in which the creator was reading from a poem “First They Came” by Martin Niemöller:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”
I refuse to stand in my fear–fear of exposing myself. I refuse to allow fear of losing potential readers by denying my morals and beliefs. Not when I write about women grappling with very things that this administration threatens to strip from them.
I am a writer. I write about my truth, the truths of women. When words are threatened to be censored, when rights are being revoked, it is imperative to use our voices loudly and often. I have decided to use my voice as a writer, as a teacher, as a woman to expose the injustices and stand for what I know to be true.
Our civil liberties are at stake. Now is not the time to stand in our fear by remaining neutral. Now is the time to take sides.
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