April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For information on what the University of Utah campus is doing to raise awareness, visit this article written by the Center for Student Wellness. In support of campus efforts, here are a few book recommendations that address this subject from librarian Allyson Mower.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

“Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing.”

Sexual Violence on Campus by Chris Linder

“Strategies that fail to account for the ways sexual violence and power intersect cannot deliver effective solutions. Based on a wide-ranging review of research, combined with her 10 years’ of experience as an educator and co-ordinator of services for survivors of campus sexual violence, Chris Linder advances a power-conscious lens to challenge student activists, administrators, educators, and policy makers to develop more nuanced approaches to sexual violence awareness, response, and prevention on college campuses.”

Sexual Citizens : A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus by Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan

“Empathic, insightful, and far-ranging, Sexual Citizens transforms our understanding of sexual assault and offers a roadmap for how to address it.”

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

A criminal act unravels everything that was once solid and known in this novel about the search for justice in a small community and within a family.

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless.

Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

Discover what those in power will do to keep their criminal acts from being exposed.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

A harrowing assault within the backdrop of a violent childhood and indifferent society leads the main character to seek justice on her own with the unlikely support of a local journalist.

Hunger by Roxane Gay

This memoir explores the downstream effects of sexual violence on the life of a young woman just coming of age.

This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps

A life influenced by everything from sexual assault to sexism to love, joy, and trying to fit in.