"Tia gave OBaaT its first poem:
Red danger,
black terror,
yellow caution,
blue sadness …
what are the colors of kindness and
courage?"
Starting as a public defender in the rough-and-tumble of Manhattan's Night Court in the 1970s, representing foster children in Family Court, as a New York City sex crimes prosecutor, as an educator and trainer at podiums, on paper, and in classrooms, and in courtrooms in the Pacific Northwest, Alice Vachss has spent the past five decades fighting villainy. The first of her two-book autobiography highlighted her years as chief of a Special Victims Bureau in NYC. “Sex Crimes.” Published by Random House in 1993, it was promptly named a NY Times Notable Book of the Year. “Sex Crimes: Then and Now” is an acclaimed double-volume including her original book as well as a sequel detailing her international work and her trials as a special prosecutor for sex crimes in rural America. Her just-published debut novel, OBaaT, was inspired by her work with teenage women standing up to trauma and their empathetic and loyal friends.
