TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Last Thursday, Sigma Tau Delta, Troy’s English Honor Society, invited Kate Gaskin, a 2004 Troy alumna and author, to present her newest book.

“When we found out that Kate was publishing her second volume, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to bring bring in a troy alum,” said Anais Shelley, the President of Sigma Tau Delta. “As you can imagine it is a really inspirational thing for a department of readers and writers to see someone achieving the dream.”

Gaskin’s latest volume of poetry, titled “A Red Knock-Knocking Like a Heart,” was published this past February by LSU Press. In the volume, Gaskin discusses deep, and sometimes taboo, topics such as being a military wife, women’s medical issues, motherhood, and raising neurodivergent children.

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“It is very easy to resort to silence because I think our society is not open to listening to women, and listening to women’s experiences when they diverge from what is normal,” Gaskin said. “It’s a hard thing to do, to talk about these things, but it’s also one of the easiest things I’ve ever done.”

Audience members were free to express their own raw emotion. For Sigma Tau Delta this kind of reaction helps build a sense of community and understanding through the artform of writing.