Exploring your childhood: Dan Williams shares his hope for 'Misbehaving in Maine'

Dan Williams is an author and English professor who recently wrote a book about his childhood. Titled "Misbehaving in Maine: 30 Half-Learned Lessons," the book is part memoir, part creative nonfiction, and uses humor to dive deeper into some of Williams' childhood — the light and dark moments.

"I know in therapy there's this technique of taking your imagination and sending it back to hang out with your childhood self, and to tell the child you were the things that should have been told to you at that time. And so you show up as sort of like the big brother to your younger self and you tell all the bullies, and you tell what the little kid you is believing — the lie that he's believing — 'dude, that is not true. You are good,'" Williams said. "And so I feel like reaching into your past through writing you can be that big brother that helps when you didn't have help. And it does work. You can go back and visit sites of trauma and talk to that kid."

Purchase Williams' book here and read his other work on Medium here.