Author of HIDING FOR MY LIFE: BEING GAY IN THE NAVY, 2024 Sarton Winner for Memoir
One step at a time, for seven years.
That’s how Karen Solt says she wrote Hiding for my Life: Being Gay in the Navy, winner of this year’s Sarton Award for Memoir. The book was her way of finally saying to the world: This is who I am.
“It really began in 2017,” says Karen. “I had an experience online when I was confronted about my gayness. I froze and sidestepped telling my truth. That moment caught me off guard and showed me that I was still deeply afraid to come out from hiding. I was in so much pain, emotionally and physically, that it sent me to bed with a fever, chills, and pain. A week later, I came out of that illness and had a vision where I could see all the stages of hiding and how we all hide.”
That was the day Karen started writing a self-help book about the steps of hiding and how to come out, but it became something else. “I never intended to write a memoir . . . It just became my avenue for healing,” she relates.
Karen is a native of Prescott, Arizona, where she barely graduated from high school in 1983. She grew up in an alcoholic family—the father she says—and was a tomboy who eschewed girly things, didn’t understand gender limitations, was a wild child, and became the first girl in Prescott to play Little League.
“College was out of the question. This is why, when the Navy recruiter came along the second time to try to get me to enlist, I went to Phoenix with him, thinking we were only going to talk to some people. By the end of that day, I had my right hand in the air and had enlisted in the Navy. This was a way that they would trick people into joining. I was a hundred miles away from home, young, naïve, and without agency. I was working at a gas station and truly just getting by.”
But it was the Navy, Karen says, that most likely saved her from a life of drugs and alcohol.
“Leaving my small hometown in the mountains and falling into the ranks with other young people from all over the country gave me a wider and more inclusive perspective of the diversity in America. I learned to co-exist with people who were not like me. I grew up and learned to stand up for myself and others. I learned to respect other cultures, and I had the opportunity to work side-by-side with people I never would have met had I not joined the Navy. I don’t love that I had to hide, and that people like me were and are still targets of our government, but I loved serving amazing people, and I have a deep belief in the potential of America.”
Karen says the veterans she served with have been an inspiration to her, as are truth-tellers, queer people, marginalized people, and all who are showing up and walking out of their homes each day knowing that the world is not always a safe place to exist. “I’m inspired by anyone who is loving, compassionate, empathetic, and open-minded toward those less fortunate, especially in these times of divisiveness.”
Writing her memoir put Karen back into the pain of having to relive her story. “But what it also gave me,” she says, was something priceless—perspective. While writing a scene, I experienced everyone’s part: their challenges, their pain, their fears. It helped me to release my judgment about how anyone else was navigating times that were very difficult.”
Winning the Sarton award, says Karen, was both an incredible honor and validating for her writing. “To be recognized by Story Circle Network, an organization dedicated to the importance of women writers and their stories, certainly feels like the perfect fit.”
As for her advice to other writers . . . “Just keep writing.”
