Jeffrey L. Baxter’s Personal Chronicle of Overcoming Depression and Obesity Set to Display at the L.A. Times Festival of Books 2024

The L.A. Times Festival of Books 2024 will certainly highlight a number of prominent and inspirational speakers. However, there is actually an even greater number of authors who want to motivate and encourage others with the books they arranged to display during the festival.

One of them is Jeffrey L. Baxter, a fellow at the National Writing Project, a frequent presenter at hundreds of workshops in the Midwest, and the winner of the 2014 Kansas Teacher of the Year.

Behind this success, however, is a story of a man overcoming one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in America: chronic depression. He shares it all very openly in his book “More Than One Way Home.”

“More Than One Way Home” tells the story of how Baxter was born the eldest of five children to a mother with tuberculosis and a father who had to leave him in his grandmother’s care in order to find work.

That meant the first four years of his life were spent with his old, humble yet sagacious Grandma Younkin. This same grandmother would help nourish his love for writing and poetry, encouraging him to find the questions to life in the things he read.

Sadly, in his later years, Baxter would lose both his grandmother as well as his own first child. The grief not only exacerbated his depression but also sent him spiraling into unhealthy diets, resulting in obesity.

In “More Than One Way Home,” Baxter shares how he managed to overcome it all during the nineties, rediscovering his passion for teaching and for life, and deciding to share his journey with readers across the country.

Visitors to the L.A. Times Festival of Books 2024 can find “More Than One Way Home” by Jeffrey L. Baxter at the self-publishing and book marketing company ReadersMagnet’s exhibit at booth #225. The book festival take place at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, on April 20-21, 2024. Get a copy on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

“More Than One Way Home”
Author: Jeffrey L. Baxter
Published date: February 5, 2018
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Genre: Memoir

Author Bio
Jeffrey L. Baxter is the oldest of five children, born when his mother had tuberculosis. His Dad had to quit architectural school to pay the bills and his mother couldn’t have contact with him because of the TB. So, Baxter was raised for the first four years of his life by his Grandmother Younkin, a retired school teacher. As he grew up, she would suggest poetry and other literature for him to read to discover the answers to the questions he was asking her. Then they would sit in her rocking chairs and figure out the answers together.

Baxter has taught for well over thirty years. He’s a fellow of the National Writing Project and very active with his local affiliate, the Greater Kansas City Writing Project. He’s presented hundreds of workshops in the Midwest and nationally.

After overcoming chronic depression in the nineties and losing more than two hundred pounds, he rediscovered his teaching career and his life. He is the 2014 Kansas Teacher of the Year. He’s also the 2015 Kansas Global Education Fellow, working with teachers globally. In 2015 he traveled to Peru to work with Peruvian children and educators. Also, he is in the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Baxter believes that character matters more than test scores, and that teaching literature should be a meaningful conversation between teacher and students like Baxter’s conversations with his grandmother.

Contact Information

ReadersMagnet

Publishing & Marketing

ReadersMagnet LLC

info@readersmagnet.com