Conversation Cafe spotlights author survivor Diane Tarantini in April 2025
Conversation Cafe spotlights author survivor Diane Tarantini in April 2025
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Conversation Cafe: Deep Dive with Diane Tarantini in April 2025

Diane Tarantini discusses her memoir Everyone Was Silent and her journey as a body safety educator and survivor advocate.

To Reserve your Spot for this 60-minute interactive conversation, go to Blue Borage’s EventBrite profile, and you’ll find the Conversation Cafe Collection. Buy your ticket there.

Blue Borage’s Conversation Cafe Series on EventBrite

 

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Description

Join Diane Tarantini, author of Everyone Was Silent: A Memoir, for an interactive conversation in April 2025

Diane’s Author BIO from Amazon:

Diane Tarantini here. I am an award-winning writer (and Pushcart Prize nominee) from West Virginia.

Thank you so much for stopping by! In case you love to know a writer’s fun facts, here’s some tea on me:

-I’m married to my forever honey, affectionately known as Tony Bear.

-We have three super good-looking and smart (Did you expect me to say otherwise?), grown and flown children, and one PeeWeePrincess grandchild.

-We’ve had as many as seven pets at a time, but currently we are servants of the most high co-queen cats, Bonnie Agnes and Boots Louise.

-I’m a huge fan of dark-roast coffee, bacon, tomatoes, raspberries, and Reese Cups. And our sleigh bed with super soft sheets.

-I want to live to be a healthy (and feisty) 100-years old, then pass away in my sleep leaving the faint scent of peonies in the room.

In this fourth of five events in the Conversation Café series, Diane Tarantini, author of Everyone Was Silent, shares her story of surviving sibling sexual abuse and becoming a body safety educator. Diane will explore the impact of her experiences, the lessons she’s learned, her professional author tips, and how she uses her voice to advocate for prevention and healing.

Before coming, if you would like to read Diane’s memoir, you’ll find all the right links via her website here:

Diane Tarantini – Everyone Was Silent

Details:

  • Date: Wednesday, 9 April 2025
  • Time: 10:00 – 11:00 am AEST (Brisbane)
  • Location: Online (Zoom link provided before the event)
  • Ticket Price: AUD $40 (donation-based options available)

Reserve your spot today via EventBrite to join this transformative conversation.

Bring your questions and join this transformative session to learn from Diane’s experiences and insights.

Blue Borage’s Conversation Cafe Series on EventBrite

Alice’s GoodReads Review of Diane’s book is as follows:

“Everyone Was Silent” by Diane Tarantini is a story that delves into the darkest corners of family secrets, intergenerational abuse, sibling violence, and the long shadow of silence that haunts survivors of sibling sexual abuse. It was a disturbing read, yet while children are experiencing abuse, we adults must read such difficult stories to learn, form our own opinions and think for ourselves: What can I do with what I read? We can use key takeaways from these stories to open up conversations. We may choose to become survivor allies or advocates and contribute to preventing such abuse from happening now and in the future. Sibling sexual abuse is preventable, and healing from the abuse, trauma, and repercussions takes a very long time. We can all be the change by choosing to care.

Speaking from lived experience, I felt the threads coming together of a family affected by the secrecy of non-disclosed abuses, societal shame and silence surrounding serious mental health conditions, and the dismissive attitudes and silence of parents. All of these compounded the trauma and illustrated the pervasive nature of denial and complicity. A chaotic and unstable family life is a common breeding ground for sibling sexual abuse to occur and continue unseen for an extended time, as little Dina and her beautiful brother Tom experienced. It broke my heart that fear and silence were the forces that ruled over this family, becoming the metaphorical garment that cloaked the children’s lives.

The author’s raw and real share of her dysfunctional family of origin paints a graphic picture of a household in desperate need of intervention and holistic support. One of the notable aspects of the story is Dina’s strategic use of emails and letter writing, a tactic that others navigating similar situations might find helpful. The eventual involvement of the authorities was brave, hopeful and inspiring, yet highlighted the unresolved nature of justice and accountability and the risk that other children may be harmed by someone like Dina’s now adult pedophile brother.

Diane Tarantini’s book sheds light on the hidden horrors within families and underscores the urgent need for awareness, intervention, and support for those affected by sibling sexual abuse.

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