Maya Golden

Special to the Tyler Morning Telegraph

FLINT – At age 30, Maya Golden was living a charmed life. She was an award-winning sports reporter, a loyal wife and a new mom.

Privately, she was battling addiction, perfectionism, dissociation disorders and rage due to sexual abuse endured at the hands of her cousin and many other predators.

But Maya wants to change.

So, on a family road trip back to her Texas hometown, she is ready to put an end to the secrets that threaten her marriage and her career.

Three separate moments of divine intervention ultimately saved Maya’s life. From a suicide plan to a treatment facility to launching a nonprofit organization — Maya’s story chronicles and dissects her journey to find purpose out of the trauma.

“The Return Trip” by Maya Golden will be released Nov. 14 and will cost $21.99. It will be available for purchase at major book retailers and online platforms, including Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Maya Golden is an Associated Press-winning and Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist. She is the winner of the Excellence in My Market Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the founder of the 1 in 3 Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides recovery and counseling resources to survivors of sexual trauma with little to no income in East Texas.

Golden has been featured on Bally Sports, Fox Sports College, ESPN 2 and 3 and other broadcast mediums including Blackgirlnerds.com and Salon.

She speaks as a survivor for organizations such as the Children’s Advocacy Center, Court Appointed Special Advocates and Kids Aspiring to Dream.

Golden also spoke at the East Texas Writers Guild Summer Conference held in Tyler in July.

“When I was younger, I wrote a lot of poetry. I wrote short stories. I had a very active imagination, I was a big day dreamer and I didn’t know quite where to channel it,” Golden said in a previous interview with the Tyler Morning Telegraph. “Then I went into journalism, and I really loved being a storyteller. I found that I enjoyed sharing other people’s stories so much.”

Golden said she created a local organization called the 1 in 3 Foundation in Smith County, which led her to find more stories to tell.

“We provide counseling services to survivors of sexual violence that have little to no income, so if they can’t afford to see a counselor we connect them with them. One of the things I was noticing as I was working with the organization was just how many survivors were struggling, but there were so few tales about overcoming sexual abuse,” Golden said in July. “There was a lot of self-help but not a lot of candid stories. It really prompted me to write ‘The Return Trip,’ my book that’s coming out in November, but it also motivated me to learn all that I could about being a writer.”

The Texas A&M alum’s career includes experience as a sports anchor/reporter and television production editor, newscast writer, field producer and print writer. She is a member of the Writer’s League of Texas, Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the East Texas Writers Guild.