Unrelenting Jewish mother Debbie Feit is an accidental mental health advocate and author of the poetry chapbook, The Power of the Plastic Fork: A Daughter’s Highly Unorthodox Kaddish (forthcoming from Porkbelly Press) in addition to texts to her kids that often go unanswered. Her work has appeared in Abandon Journal, Five South, HAD, Harbor Review, Kveller, The New York Times, and ONE ART: a journal of poetry, as well as on her mother’s bulletin board. A former advertising copywriter, magazine editor, and person who used to be able to sleep without pharmaceutical intervention, she is the author of The Parent’s Guide to Speech and Language Problems (McGraw-Hill), the result of spending six years driving her two kids to speech therapy. Brooklyn-born and bred, she lives in the suburbs of Detroit with her mini sheepadoodle who refuses to leave her side, and her husband who refuses to acknowledge crumbs on the kitchen counter. She would kill for a New York black and white.
She is the founder of the now defunct website, Our Special Kids, a resource for parents of kids with special needs that featured advice, book reviews, celebrity profiles, and a sense of camaraderie often found in the therapy waiting rooms Debbie frequented after both her kids were diagnosed with apraxia of speech. She spent six years driving one or both of them to speech therapy several times a week, and her advocacy continued for many more years after her son was diagnosed with multiple psychiatric diagnoses while still in elementary school. Her efforts to get him the proper help included dozens of medications and almost as many mental health professionals spanning across four states. Debbie spent years sitting in IEP meetings to ensure Max had the proper support he needed in school. Today, Max participates in IEP meetings from the other side of the table, using his Limited License Master of Social to help kids. Debbie works to help parents by writing about her experiences and responding to the messages she receives through social media.
When she’s not advising someone about the benefits of fish oil or trying to stave off her own panic attack, she can be found writing poetry and prose about her Jewish identity, grief and loss, and mental health; social posts about her life as a writer, and lists of the TV shows she watches and what platform they are on because hell if she can remember.