No Heroic Measures - Paperback

by Jessica Danger (Author)

One day, Jessica Danger's life is shattered when she receives a phone call informing her that her long estranged father - the man who once tried to kill her - is now dying of liver failure. Danger faces an impossible choice: abandon her father, or care for the man who caused her so much pain and fear. This unflinching and profound memoir delves into the dark heart of addiction, the tangled web of family myths, and the agonizing journey to forgiveness. As she spends a year caring for her dying father, Danger unearths the truth about his past and confronts the unsettling ways she sees herself reflected in the man she thought she hated. This is a powerful story of reckoning, redemption, and the enduring complexities of family and love.

Author Biography

Jessica Danger is an Assistant Professor of English at Vanguard University, the Director of Education at Dead Reckoning Collective, and Joshua Tree Writers Retreat Co-Founder. She holds an MFA from Bennington College, where she was also awarded the Nonfiction Alumni Fellowship in 2025. She was nominated for the Lucy Grealy Nonfiction Prize, a finalist for the Iowa Review Nonfiction Prize, and also for the 2024 Literary Awards. Her work has been published widely, with recent publications in The Sun and in Oh, Reader, and her memoir, No Heroic Measures, is out in Spring 2026 with the Santa Fe Wr