Alice Vachss
"Tia gave OBaaT its first poem:
Red danger,
black terror,
yellow caution,
blue sadness …
what are the colors of kindness and
courage?"
Alice Vachss worked as:
• a VISTA volunteer at New York City’s infamous Rikers Island jail and prison;
• a public defender in Manhattan;
• an attorney for foster children in New York’s Family Court;
• a New York City sex crime prosecutor;
• chief of a NYC Special Victims Bureau;
• a national and international speaker, educator and trainer;
• director of a consultant firm on campus sexual assault response;
• a civil rights legal aid attorney for elderly or abused victims;
• the special prosecutor for sex crimes in a Pacific Northwest county.
The first of Alice Vachss’ biographical non-fiction highlighted her years as chief of a Special Victims Bureau in NYC. Published by Random House in 1993, “Sex Crimes” was promptly named a NY Times Notable Book of the Year. “Sex Crimes: Then and Now” includes both 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 debut novel, OBaaT [One Bully at a Time], was inspired by her work with teenage women standing up to trauma and their empathetic and loyal friends.
In addition, Alice Vachss has published numerous popular media articles on sexual violence, several research articles and a manual on community response to sex crimes victims who are elderly or who have a disability. She is also the editor of Pay What It Costs, LLC’s small press dedicated to solutions-to-violence literature.
