Draft:Debora Harding (author)
Debora Harding (author)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Debora Harding is an American-British memoirist, essayist and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The Guardian,[1] The Observer,[2] and Unbound.[3]
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Early life
Harding grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and Laurens, Iowa.[4] She obtained a BA in political science at George Washington University.[5]
Career
Working under her maiden name Debora Cackler, Harding began her career in Washington, D.C., working for Senator Gary Hart, Senator Tom Daschle, and pollster Peter Hart.[6] She served as executive director of the Capital Crescent Trail for two years, overseeing the early phase that led to the development of the popular 11-mile rail-trail connecting Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Silver Spring, Maryland.[7]
Harding co-founded the Oxford Channel (later renamed Six TV), one of the first free-to-air local terrestrial television channels in Oxford, England.[8][9] Within months of launch, the station's programming attracted over 25% of the potential audience of 500,000 viewers each week.[9]
Harding trained as a restorative justice mediator with Concentric Circles in Texas.[10] She was the first victim of a violent crime to enter into mediation with a prisoner in Nebraska, meeting with her attacker 25 years after the assault.[10]
Harding served as CEO of City Bikes, an independent bicycle business in Washington, D.C., that played a major role in promoting sustainable transport in the city.[11] She stepped down from the position in July 2012 following the death of her 14-year-old son, Kadian, in a cycling accident in England.[12][13]
Writing
Her memoir Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime (2020), published by Bloomsbury Publishing in the US and Profile Books in the UK,[14][15] explores trauma, PTSD, and restorative justice through the lens of her own experiences. Written several years after the death of her son, Harding described writing the book as "imperative to my survival" as she worked to separate the existential questions from her childhood trauma from her grief over losing Kadian.[14]
The book has been reviewed in major outlets including The Guardian,[16] The Telegraph,[5] and the New York Journal of Books.[17] It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly,[18] and was selected as an Amazon Editor's Pick.[19] BookPage named it one of the Best Books of 2020 in the Memoirs category.[20]
The book was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction in 2021,[21][22] selected as a 2020 best true crime book by CrimeReads[23] and Oxygen,[24] and selected as an Indie's Choice by the American Booksellers Association.[14]
On 8 January 2024, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed a proclamation honoring Dancing with the Octopus as the 2024 One Book One Nebraska selection by the Nebraska Center for the Book.[25][26][27]
Harding has written for The Guardian,[1] The Observer,[2] and Unbound.[3] She has given interviews on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4,[28] WOWT television in Omaha,[29] and Times Radio.[30]
Personal life
Harding holds both American and British citizenship and lives in Hampshire, England.[14] She is married to British author Thomas Harding.[13] She has two children, including son Kadian Harding (1998–2012), whose death in a cycling accident in Wiltshire, England, is documented in her husband's memoir Kadian Journal (2014).[13]
She served on the Advisory Board for the Hart Center for Public Service.[14]