A 6-week book club and virtual community centered on a groundbreaking memoir that bridges neuroscience, colonization, disability justice, and embodied resistance.

Don’t miss our fall SpeakOut Book Club! We’re reading Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by award-winning writer and narrative strategist Jen Soriano—a groundbreaking memoir-in-essays that bridges neuroscience, colonization, disability justice, and embodied resistance. Together we’ll explore how trauma lives in our bodies, what it takes to heal across generations, and how to cultivate trauma-wise communities in times of upheaval. Includes live sessions, reflection, practical tools you can use right away, and a special event with Jen Soriano herself!

Ready to explore how trauma lives in the body and what it takes to heal across generations? Join us for an exclusive 6-week book club and virtual community centered on Jen Soriano’s transformative memoir, Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing.

This powerful experience goes beyond reading. It’s a space to connect, reflect, and grow with others who are committed to healing justice, collective liberation, and the power of storytelling to transform pain into action.

SpeakOut Book Club will meet three times via Zoom:

• Tuesday, September 23rd at 1 PM PT – Welcome Call
• Tuesday, October 7th at 1 PM PT – Book Discussion
• Tuesday, October 28th at 1 PM PT – Live Event with Jen Soriano

STEP ONE: Join the BOOK CLUB COMMUNITY by September 19th!
STEP TWO: Buy the BOOK (Participants must buy the book independently.)

$19.99 per person for groups of 8 or more
Contact programs@speakoutnow.org for group rates or more information.

Let’s read, reflect, and rise together.

Jen Soriano (she/they) is a powerful speaker, award-winning writer, and narrative strategist who brings together storytelling and healing. Known for creating brave spaces and community care-centered conversations, Jen offers audiences tools for reflection, trauma-wise insight, and a vision for collective transformation.

She is the author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing, a celebrated memoir-in-essays that explores personal and ancestral trauma through the lens of Philippine history, social neuroscience, and lived experience. Described as a “love letter to bodies that have survived,” Nervous invites us to imagine healing through interdependence, cultural awareness, and nervous system-informed care.

In addition to her literary work, Jen is a purpose-driven leader who has helped shape social justice organizations like MediaJustice and ReFrame. She speaks on topics such as narrative power, healing justice, and identity and culture, always with a deep commitment to inclusive learning, interpersonal growth, and shared purpose.

Jen holds a BA from Harvard and an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop. She was the 2022–2023 poet-in-residence with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.