Pamela Wagner is a prize-winning poet and an accomplished writer who also happens to have schizoaffective disorder.  She and her sister, Dr. Carolyn Spiro, wrote Divided Minds:  Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia, a book published by St. Martin's Press in 2005 that illustrates how a schizoaffective disorder impacted the identical twins' lives. 

Pam's new book, We Mad Climb Shaky Ladders, was published by CavanKerry Press.

For more biographical information on Pam and examples of her work, please see the following:

• The Poetry of Pamela Spiro Wagner
• Pam Wagner's Story
• One "Noncomplier's" Case for Olanzapine
• Twin Realities - The Sisters Were Identical, Until The Voices Began

Pamela and her sister Carolyn (a Harvard Medical School Psychiatrist) were interviewed in an April 2004 program from The Infinite Mind series. You will need the Real Audio software to listen to this file - it can be downloaded for free from http://www.real.com/

• Four Lives Interview - Details: Featured on this Audio program are:

  Texas State Representative Garnet Coleman, former head of Ann Richard's campaign for governor, a nationally recognized leader in the fight for healthcare reform and better mental health services, who is living with manic-depressive illness;

  Meera Popkin, a star of Cats and Miss Saigon on Broadway and in London's West End who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her life went from center stage and limousines to waiting tables at Wendy's, but she's back.
  
  Information for this biography is from:  http://www.schizophrenia.com/stories/pwag.htm

Pam's web log documents her thoughts, opinions, challenges, and successes. Visit frequently to enjoy her insights on life and literature.

We at ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL and Larry Neal's family appreciate Pam Wagner's help in raising consciousness regarding Larry's secret jail death and the plight of incarcerated mentally ill people in America. 

Pam's art and poetry should serve as reminders that some of the most intelligent, talented and creative people throughout history have or had mental disorders.  See a partial list of names on my Care2 page.  Nobel Laureate in Economics, John Forbes Nash Jr., has a lifetime history of schizophrenia.  His story was documented in "A Beautiful Mind," a book and academy award-winning movie. There is no telling what genius America has locked away in solitary confinement in prisons and jails since this nation moved from treating to punishing mental illness.

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL
PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST
THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to
decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be
punished for having a disability.