No Heroic Measures

One day, Jessica Danger’ s life is shattered when she receives a phone call informing her that her long estranged father - the man who once tried to kill her - is now dying of liver failure. Danger faces an impossible choice: abandon her father, or care for the man who caused her so much pain and fear. This unflinching and profound memoir delves into the dark heart of addiction, the tangled web of family myths, and the agonizing journey to forgiveness. As she spends a year caring for her dying father, Danger unearths the truth about his past and confronts the unsettling ways she sees herself reflected in the man she thought she hated. This is a powerful story of reckoning, redemption, and the enduring complexities of family and love.

Jessica Danger is a creative writing professor at Concordia University, Irvine, and the Director of Education at Dead Reckoning Collective. She holds an MFA from Bennington College in Vermont, where she was the Lucy Grealy Nonfiction Award Nominee. Jessica has spent the last decade getting sober while writing and speaking about grief, addiction, and motherhood. Her work has been published in several journals and magazines. Danger is also the co-founder and Director of the Joshua Tree Writers Retreat in Joshua Tree, CA. She is still learning that everything in the desert wants to kill you and how to make it to bed each night without owing anyone an amends. You can find her on Instagram at @MamaDanger.