Best-selling author talks about growing up in Urbana

BethMacy’smost recent book is the basis for an upcoming series on Hulu.

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a virtual book club discussion of Beth Macy’s book, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America,” as a guest of the Page Turners book club at Washington-Centerville Public Library. (Learn more about the library’s various book clubs and book club resources at www. wclibrary.info/bookdiscussion/.)

Macy joined the club for the discussion of her book, which chronicles America’s more than 20-year struggle with opioid addiction, from its

Beth Macy’smost recent book is “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company thatAddicted America.”

beginning in 1996 with OxyContin, to the spread through distressed communities in Central Appalachia, to the current national crisis. The book is the basis for what will soon be a Hulu original series.

It was touching to hear Macy’s passion for the people she covered in her book, as well as to hear thoughtful and insightful comments and questions from members of the book club.

I followed up with a phone chat with Macy, who is a native of and grew up in Urbana. In addition to “Dopesick,” Macy is the author of “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town,” and “Truevine: Two Brothers, A Kidnapping and a Mother’s Question.” All three books are New York Times bestsellers. Learn more about her and her work at https://intrepidpapergirl. com/.

My conversation with Macy:

Growing up in Urbana, did you have mentors who helped nourish your development as a writer and journalist?

I loved school. In high school, I played softball, did marching band, and worked on the yearbook. I really loved English. Mr. Robert K. Martin was my high school’s longtime band director and he was a tough disciplinarian in a good way. I was lucky enough to have Ms. Margaret Tabor as my high school English teacher two years in a row. I thought she was so sophisticated. She’d do things like have flowers from her garden in a Perrier bottle on her desk! My parents were big readers, and we lived up the street from the library. We knew most of the librarians. I kind of wanted to be an English teacher but I didn’t want to speak in front of big groups, which is funny because I do that often now, speaking about my books. I picked journalism as my major as a freshman, and stuck to it. I had good professors at Bowling Green. I was the first in my family to go to college.

How does having Ohio/ Dayton-area roots impact you as a writer? As a journalist?

I grew up in a workingclass family, and I think that’s why I’ve always written about social justice and marginalized people. I saw what happens if a town is heavily invested in one manufacturer and the economy or other factors take that away. I felt the unfairness of life in my bones at very young age, and I try to explore the causes of that and how economics exists on a ground level, how policies affect everyday people. Honestly, I’d rather talk to the janitor first before talking to the CEO. I grew up around no B.S. people and my mom was tough as nails.

What do you hope — in a nutshell — people will take away from reading your books in general and “Dopesick” in particular?

I hope readers take away empathy in general and a more nuanced understanding about what’s happened to people who are left behind, whether by factories or by the opioid crisis. Particularly with “Dopesick,” I hope people understand we wouldn’t be in this muddle if marketeers hadn’t changed narrative that opioids are addictive. There’s also a genetic component to addiction. Instead of seeing addicted people as screw-ups, I’d like readers to see the failure of systems that led directly and indirectly to a man-made epidemic.

Upcoming Literary Events:

Through Nov. 30 — We’re all familiar with summer reading programs, but the Washington Centerville Public Library has launched a Children’s Fall Reading Program, underway now through the end of November for newborns through students in Grade 5. Visit wclibrary.info/frp/ childrens/ for more information and to register.

Mondays, Sept. 28-Oct. 26, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Word’s Worth Writing Connections offers a Writer’s Workshop (held via Zoom) for writers looking for feedback on their stories or novel or memoir chapters. (The entire work does not need to be finished.) The workshop will be led by author, editor and teacher Christina Consolino. Visit www. wordsworthdayton.com for more information and to register.

Sunday, Oct. 11, 1-3:30 p.m. — Local, award-winning author Moriel Rothman-Zecher will lead a virtual writing workshop on novel writing via the Ohioana Library. RothmanZecher’s novel, “Sadness is a White Bird,” won the 2019 Ohioana Book Award in fiction. For more information and to register, visit www.ohioana.org/.