Finalist for Minnesota Book Awards, Memoir/Creative-Nonfiction

Trauma Sponges is available wherever you seek books: libraries, local bookstores, the internet.

~Finalist: MN Book Awards, Memoir/Creative-Nonfiction

Jeremy is available for private group readings, educational events, bookfairs, discussions and panels, and bookclubs. jeremynortonwrites@gmail.com

Thank you all for the support and love.

Upcoming events

trauma Sponges

Dispatches from The Scarred Heart of Emergency Response
~OUT NOW!

It is LIVE & at bookstores near you. Or wherever you go to find books in physical spaces! Libraries, bookstores, that one guy who has a duffel bag.

Reflections on 22 years as a Minneapolis firefighter/EMT: the hard facts about living and dying in our society; the sociology of emergency response and the grim realities of our healthcare system; the intractable societal issues played out in large and small ways; the steady diet of trauma, grief, and suffering; the nobility of doing right, no matter the cost.

About Jeremy

A native of Washington, DC, Norton received a Bachelor’s in Literature from Tufts University & a Master’s in Creative Writing from Boston University. He taught high school English in Chattanooga, TN before landing in Minneapolis, drawn by strong coffee, real winter, and Husker Du. He joined the MFD in 2000, promoting to Captain in 2007, Battalion Chief in 2015, then returning to Captain in 2017, where he remains.

Contact Jeremy: jeremynorton.writes@gmail.com

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Hype and Previews: Many thanks to these glorious folks for reading and sharing their thoughts.

“While many bear witness to injustice and decide that silence best serves their privilege, some use their privilege to dismantle the inequities that created the disparities in the first place. Jeremy Norton is the latter.”

Dr. Michele Harper, author of The Beauty in Breaking

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“Trauma Sponges is a powerful book, by turns tender, brutal, and incisive, full of wisdom and wonder. Jeremy Norton’s compassionate vision and vivid, well-crafted prose make this much more than a collection of shock stories. Here we have it all: brilliantly rendered scenes of crisis and grief, a close-up view of the physical (and spiritual) grind firefighters embrace, a celebration of the communities they serve, existential reflections earned on the margins of life and death, and piercing critiques of some of the outmoded, frankly misogynist and racist attitudes that have plagued the station house. Norton is a thoughtful, courageous guide, our Virgil taking us through infernos both actual and metaphorical.”

Sam Lipsyte, author No One Left to Come Looking for You and The Ask

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“With clarity and sensitivity, Jeremy Norton has written an eye-opening book that shows us what firefighting is often about: encountering medical emergencies more often than fires, helping strangers through the trauma of death and loss, and witnessing the ways that racism, poverty, and violence singe our society. Theirs is a particular courage that we must all celebrate.”

Dr. Sunita Puri, author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour

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“If you’re looking for a hero with all the answers, that is not Jeremy Norton. Norton is the Poet Laureate of Emergency Services, a writer whose talent and heart spark and crackle on every page, devastating and dazzling with equal measure. He sorts through the wreckage of the lives he's saved and those that were lost, presenting us with what remains: our raw humanity and, somehow, hope.”

Nora McInerny, founder of the Terrible, Thanks for Asking podcast and best-selling author of Bad Vibes Only