Biography

My name is Charly Ackermen. I graduated high school at sixteen with a 3.7 GPA, now pursuing English at the University of Maryland Global Campus. Writing is not my hobby; it is me. My novel—no, my child—is forged from my history of self-harm, a suicide attempt, gang violence, sexual abuse, and the grief of watching lives end from a young age. I needed to hide from this despair. My brain dissociated and hallucinated, inevitably destroying my brain and the lens which I view reality. Death pressed down like a second skin, I needed to do it. I NEEDED to be FREE! Drops quickly turned scarlet rivers of prayers oozing out of my tricep with warm sticky blood drowning my person. My disparity for God grew as my muscle became exposed, the pink severed meat hanging out my arm like a freshly cut steak prepared for a king. Reality became an ancient myth which was long forgotten. I’m bleeding out from a crucifix on my tricep, I’m unconscious lying in the middle of crimson crosses painted throughout the entirety of my now red room with my own blood. This action was a prayer to The God that seemed like he lost his care for me. Every scar became a line, whether on my skin from a knife or on a Google Doc describing the cut. Every wound became a prayer. Every scar formed my child. We Are One is my testament. My obsession. My child. Furthermore, a direct extension of Charly Ackermen.