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Kate Price, author of This Happened to Me: A Reckoning

Kate Price, who grew up in a small mill town in central Pennsylvania, was able to escape the unbroken cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, mental illness and abuse that had plagued her family for generations. She started a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in pursuit of her master’s and PhD. But despite having left this dark world behind, it still kept a firm grip on her. Overcome with unexplainable grief and sadness, Price sought out Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist to help heal her constant emotional pain through EMDR therapy. When Price felt safe enough, she discovered what that darkness that lay within her was. Her father had abused and trafficked her as a child. Price grappled with what had been revealed. And so began a 10-year quest alongside a journalist to prove what Price knew to be her truth.

This Happened to Me: A Reckoning by Kate Price

August 2025

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to spotlight some titles that I would call “issue books” --- nonfiction that looked at topics that I think are worth exploring. THIS HAPPENED TO ME by Kate Price is one of those books.

At a young age, Kate, who grew up in Appalachia, spent lots of time reading books and finding refuge in the children’s department of her local library. There she could “visit” various places and find adventure and warm family stories, which were very different from what she saw at home. Her father was violent, her mother lived in fear of him, and she frequently was pitted against her older sister in abusive ways.