Featured Interview: Christian Austin discusses the story behind his memoir RESILIENT in Tbilisi, Georgia.

I cannot imagine who or where I’d be if my life had followed a more traditional course. Instead, I am a musician, a traveller, a reader, a writer, a criminologist, a speaker—and above all, a survivor.

During my prison years I read more books than many encounter in a lifetime. It was both a lifeline and a passion. In solitary confinement I read the entire King James Bible in 28 days, followed by Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Hugo’s Les Misérables, Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, and Charrière’s Papillon spoke to me for obvious reasons. Reading was how I learned, and it eventually opened the gates to Cambridge, where I completed a Master’s in Criminology at the Institute of Criminology.

My heroes range from Shackleton and Napoleon to Dr. Gabor Maté, whose work on trauma and addiction resonates deeply with my own path. Also in the field of childhood trauma, the work of both Dr. Karen Treisman and Nadine Burke Harris inspires me daily.

After graduating, I gave a TEDx talk in Cambridge and was invited to give another in 2020—before the pandemic closed the world. Today, I continue to share my journey in the hope that others will see that no matter where you begin, it’s never too late to rewrite your story.