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Donna Freitas

Writer, Speaker, and Teacher

Publishers WeeklyStarred Review
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“Freitas’s prose is engaging and precise, and her what-if format proves ideal for elegantly unpacking the tensions of the plot. She balances tightly written scenes of confrontation with Rose’s poignant reflections on how much she can compromise without losing herself completely. This isn’t one to miss.“
BooklistStarred Review
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“Fans of Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life, Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot, and the film Sliding Doors will find themselves happily lost in this charming, heartfelt, thought-provoking novel.”
Kirkus ReviewsStarred Review
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“Reminiscent of Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life or the movie Sliding Doors, Freitas’ novel explores nine (but certainly not all) possible outcomes when a woman who has never wanted children marries a man who gradually decides he does….Following the maze of numbered takes becomes an addictive game, highly literate escapism, like watching The Queen’s Gambit….Highly readable and provocative.”
Jill SantapauloNew York Times bestselling author of More Than Words
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“In a powerful exploration of motherhood and feminism, Donna Freitas probes the ties that bind us all to one another through love, through obligation and through choice. At once thought provoking and emotionally moving, this novel will have readers examining their own relationships and their own ‘what-ifs.’”
Karma Brownbestselling author of Recipe for a Perfect Wife
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“In this unflinching exploration of motherhood, Donna Freitas delivers a self-assured novel that questions if female agency is realistic in a world that expects conformity. In captivating Sliding Doors style, we’re offered an intimate glimpse into the nine different lives of one woman as she struggles to define womanhood. Riveting, astute and brazenly honest, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano has left an indelible mark—I won't soon forget it.”
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RELEASING ON APRIL 6TH

The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

In every woman there are many stories . . .

These are Rose’s.

Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she’d take them, but didn’t. Rose has always known that she didn’t want to become a mother. And Luke had promised that he’d never want children, either.  But now he has changed his mind. Their marriage has come down to this question: can Rose change hers as well?

But then, Rose has the same fight with Luke—again. This time, the fight goes differently, and so does Rose’s life, as she reimagines herself in a completely new way. And so it goes, through nine versions of Rose’s future. The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano shows us, as Rose chooses, and chooses again, what it means to reinvent a life and become a different kind of person  than we ever imagined. What would change if we let go of our pre-conceived ideas of who we are and who we’re meant to be?  

A what-if novel with a brilliant, original structure, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is destined to drive women’s conversations as they debate Rose’s choices. This is a  stunning story about love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman’s career and her identity–about finding one’s way into a future that wasn’t the future one planned, and the ways that fate intercedes when we least expect it.   It will have women talking deeply about not just motherhood, but who they are and who they want to become.

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BOOK CLUB

MY WORK

BOOKS

Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir, Young Adult, and Middle Grade.
Take a peek inside my world.

FICTION

My fiction debut is coming April 2021. A novel about a woman who thought she never wanted to be a mother—and the many ways that life can surprise us.

MEMOIR

My account of being stalked by a professor for over two years, using my experience to examine the ways in which we stigmatize, debate, and attempt to understand consent today.

NON-FICTION

Based on research that includes candid interviews with students, my non-fiction books focus on some of the biggest challenges that college students face today.

YOUNG ADULT
& MIDDLE GRADE

My novels for young readers are about (and for!) smart, brave young adults and kids who are using their extraordinary gifts to change the world.

See All

hello

I'm Donna

Writer. Professor. Scholar. Speaker. Author of Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult and Middle Grade novels. Those are my titles. But what I’d really like to tell you is that I write with urgency: to give my protagonists all the experience and knowledge that I wished I had but didn’t. To work through grief and loss and rage toward a place of hope and possibility, to speak the unspeakable. My scholarship is decidedly feminist and practical: What are the voices we most need to hear, and what do they want us to know? How can we transform our world so that it will be more just, more inclusive, less violent? In my non-fiction work, I document the concerns of the people I interview: what conversations do people desperately need to have? What are they searching for that we’re ignoring? This urgency and hope, for you, for myself, and for our shared world—this is what fuels my writing, no matter who my audience is.

Get to Know Me

hello

I'm Donna

Writer. Professor. Scholar. Speaker. Author of Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult and Middle Grade novels. Those are my titles. But what I’d really like to tell you is that I write with urgency: to give my protagonists all the experience and knowledge that I wished I had but didn’t. To work through grief and loss and rage toward a place of hope and possibility, to speak the unspeakable. My scholarship is decidedly feminist and practical: What are the voices we most need to hear, and what do they want us to know? How can we transform our world so that it will be more just, more inclusive, less violent? In my non-fiction work, I document the concerns of the people I interview: what conversations do people desperately need to have? What are they searching for that we’re ignoring? This urgency and hope, for you, for myself, and for our shared world—this is what fuels my writing, no matter who my audience is.

Get to Know Me

I'm Donna

Writer. Professor. Scholar. Speaker. Author of Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult and Middle Grade novels. Those are my titles. But what I’d really like to tell you is that I write with urgency: to give my protagonists all the experience and knowledge that I wished I had but didn’t. To work through grief and loss and rage toward a place of hope and possibility, to speak the unspeakable. My scholarship is decidedly feminist and practical: What are the voices we most need to hear, and what do they want us to know? How can we transform our world so that it will be more just, more inclusive, less violent? In my non-fiction work, I document the concerns of the people I interview: what conversations do people desperately need to have? What are they searching for that we’re ignoring? This urgency and hope, for you, for myself, and for our shared world—this is what fuels my writing, no matter who my audience is.

Get to Know Me
"Donna Freitas combs through the emotional knots that form when a mentor's attention becomes inappropriate and manipulative. With sharp attention, she separates the many strands of consent one by one. A riveting, significant examination of the forces that push a student into silence about unwanted attention."
Idra Novey
Idra Noveyaward-winning author of Those Who Knew and Ways to Disappear
"Freitas recounts with great thoughtfulness how her perception of the power differential between [herself and her stalker], as well as her faith in the religious and educational institutions she'd grown up with, lulled her into susceptibility and disbelief."
New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review
"A meticulously recounted memoir of building dread, that pushes our understanding of power and its abuses. Freitas's story complicates and illuminates our ideas about harassment and harm, showing how it doesn't just begin and end within the confines of physical contact: it infiltrates our own heads, is enabled by the very structures that are supposed to be our recourse from it but too often work to cover it up."
Rebecca Traister
Rebecca TraisterNew York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad
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"Donna Freitas combs through the emotional knots that form when a mentor's attention becomes inappropriate and manipulative. With sharp attention, she separates the many strands of consent one by one. A riveting, significant examination of the forces that push a student into silence about unwanted attention."
Idra Novey
Idra Noveyaward-winning author of Those Who Knew and Ways to Disappear
"Freitas recounts with great thoughtfulness how her perception of the power differential between [herself and her stalker], as well as her faith in the religious and educational institutions she'd grown up with, lulled her into susceptibility and disbelief."
New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review
"A meticulously recounted memoir of building dread, that pushes our understanding of power and its abuses. Freitas's story complicates and illuminates our ideas about harassment and harm, showing how it doesn't just begin and end within the confines of physical contact: it infiltrates our own heads, is enabled by the very structures that are supposed to be our recourse from it but too often work to cover it up."
Rebecca Traister
Rebecca TraisterNew York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad
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WRITING COACHING

Meet the Book Doctor

If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll finish that book “someday,” whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, a memoir or even a dissertation, I’m here to tell you…someday is here.

WORK WITH ME

write like your life depends on it

If you need something from the story you are telling, then it will have natural momentum and tension. Readers won’t be able to put it down.

But how do you write from that place of need? How do you feel a sense of primal urgency at 5:00am on a Wednesday when you’ve only got an hour before your kids wake up? Or at 11:00pm when the day’s demands have left you wrung out and even making a cup of tea feels like too much?

And once you finally manage to finish a draft, how do you rewrite and polish it until your intention shines through with clarity? How on earth do you get it published?! I’ve been right where you’re standing, and I’ll help you answer all these questions and the questions you don’t even know to ask yet.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Writing Tips You'll Actually Use

Even if you’re “not a writer.” Once a month in your inbox. Personal letters with my very best advice on how to get your writing out of your head and onto the page. And my most recent, favorite reads to inspire you along the way.

Writing Tips You'll Actually Use

Even if you’re “not a writer.” Once a month in your inbox. Personal letters with my very best advice on how to get your writing out of your head and onto the page. And my most recent, favorite reads to inspire you along the way.

Writing Tips You'll Actually Use

Even if you’re “not a writer.” Once a month in your inbox. Personal letters with my very best advice on how to get your writing out of your head and onto the page. And my most recent, favorite reads to inspire you along the way.

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