Amy Butcher, assistant professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan, recently published a memoir about her own years as a college student, and on Sept. 17, she gave a reading in Beeghly Library.
But âVisiting Hours: A Memoir of Friendship and Murderâ is not a typical campus story.
Butcherâs book details the homicide of Emily Silverstein, who was murdered by her boyfriend Kevin. Butcher was close with Kevin, and even walked home with him on the night of the murder.
Butcherâs interest in the nonfiction genre led to the writing of the book. She writes, âIâm drawn to the essay form because it allows me to step into someone elseâs shoes, or perhaps to write a reader into them.â
Kevin had struggled with clinical depression his whole life. With her memoir, Butcher hopes to âadd to the chorus of conversation on the often taboo topic of mental illness in America.â
When asked how the events of the book changed her life, Butcher said, âI subscribe to the belief that everything that happens to us invariably shapes us, but in this way, I feel this event shaped my everything. Perhaps I wonât feel this way years from now, and perhaps that will be a blessing, but for now, I think the easier question is to consider the ways in which this event hasnât shaped me. I have a hard time coming with much, frankly. We are molded exponentially by what we know.â
Sophomore Hayley Mandel, said, âI read it last year. It is a piece that you think about very deeply for a long time. I think back to it often.â
Professor Karen Poremski of OWUâs English department said, âI admire professor Butcherâs ability to address difficult issues in a reasonable, calm way.â
Shortly before the end of her undergraduate career, Amy Butcher went out for drinks with some friends, including a close friend named Kevin. He walked her home, told her a joke about a John Denver song and said goodnight. Less than two hours later, Kevinâs 19 year old ex-girlfriend, Emily Silverstein was dead in his bathroom.
This story is the basis of Ohio Wesleyan University assistant professor Amy Butcherâs first book, Visiting Hours, which was released nationally on April 7, 2015.
Butcher teaches creative nonfiction in the English department.
In her book, Butcher writes about how she coped with losing her friend, Kevin.
âIt is taboo to say that I grieved for the erasure of Kevin as much as I grieved the loss of his victim,â Butcher said. âBut itâs the truth.â
âKevin was a history major, the president of the college radio station, a kid who wore skinny jeans and green tennis shoes and form-fitting t-shirts in hipster shades: crimson, baby blue, magenta,â she says. âIn short, he was one of the most innocuous and responsible people I knew, and this made the incident all the more horrifying.â
Butcher said she had written him letters every month for three years.
âBecause Kevin would not talk to me about any of this – not the crime, not what really happened,â said Butcher, âI eventually drove back to Gettysburg and sought this information myself by way of a request for all public documents related to the case.â
This is when Butcher learned the truth about what really happened that night.
âI learned Kevin had been trying to take his own life when Emily physically intervened,â she said. âWhen someone is so overcome with the desire to kill themselves, they kill the person who gets in the way.â
Butcher says she wrote this book not only as way of coping with the loss of her friend, but to open a discussion on mental illness.
âDepression and suicidal ideation is incredibly common,â Butcher says. âIn fact, suicide is the second leading cause of death nationally for those ages 15-24.â
Butcher said she began writing the book during her third year of graduate school at the University of Iowa.
In her first version of the story, Butcher found, through help from her mentors (Robin Hemley and Meghan Daum), that the book was really about how she was obsessed and traumatized.
Butcher says when she finished the book, âIt felt like the most pressurized valve had been turned, and I could breathe again.â
As for whatâs next for Butcher, she has three works in progress.
âIâm generally not one to talk about my work until itâs done, because I think it can create a false sense of success that Iâve in no way earned,â she says.
Several of Butcherâs students are encouraged by the amount of success sheâs had at her age.
âButcher’s book inspires me to be an effective writer while still pursuing my own career, just as she has,â senior Lauren Moore said. âTo me, balancing both her job search and her personal publishing is an amazing accomplishment.â
Senior Paul Priddy shared these sentiments.
âFrom a studentâs perspective, I don’t know that I can say enough about the value of having a highly recognized and award-winning author as my professor,â Priddy said. âItâs really amazing to have the opportunity to have our work critiqued in as thoughtful and intelligent a way as professor Butcher does.â