Merissa Nathan Gerson

Merissa Nathan Gerson is a writer whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic and Modern Loss.

She is author of Forget Prayers, Bring Cake: A Single Woman’s Guide to Grieving, which explores how she moved from quiet New England to the complexity and magic of New Orleans only to be greeted by the sudden death of her father. This is the story of her confrontation with layers of grief and despair – both current and historical – handled all alone in a brand new city.

Merissa was the inherited trauma consultant to Amazon’s Emmy Award-winning show, Transparent, and the author of Ask Your Yenta, an advice column that Bitch Magazine named one of the top ten to watch in 2010.

The founder of KenMeansYes.org, a consent advocacy organisation, Merissa also speaks nationwide on inherited trauma, consent education and religious sex education. She was born and raised in Washington DC and now lives in a purple house on an amazing block in New Orleans. Alone.