Beyond Afar

Shirley Mandel Satterfield is a Baltimore girl from way back who was raised in the rough and tumble world of a steelworkers family and writes Christian poetry, memoirs and nonfiction. She has lived to survive a life fraught with domestic violence, child abuse, and mental illness and writes to help others to survive the same kinds of things. After becoming a radiology technician, she went on to serve in the U.S. Army and later on in life attended Averett University in Danville, Virginia as a nontraditional student earning two B.A. degrees in English and journalism and was awarded the Ember Award for Excellence in Poetry by the campus literary magazine. She was also named correspondent of the Day by the Richmond Times Dispatch for a letter she wrote to the editor concerning the importance of compassionate treatment and the acceptance of the mentally ill by society.