Writing from a Radical Place

I told my friends there would be at least five books. After all, I’d purchased ten ISBNs, the little barcode identifiers you see on the back cover. I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I had simply reached the point where I could see clearly enough to finally say something that mattered.

Following talks and book signings, people asked about everything: how I’ve lived, what I’ve done, and how they should navigate family members making different life decisions than they’d choose for themselves. They wanted to understand what makes my brain tick. I’d tell them, gently: I don’t expect people to understand. I barely understand myself. It’s likely that the one you love, who’s making the hard-to-understand decisions, barely understands themselves either. They probably won’t be able to explain it.

How do I hold the contradictions? How do I stay in the tension? That kind of questioning doesn’t stop at the surface. It digs deeper into my own psyche, into my hypocrisy, into the origin of my confidence and the foundation of my security. It led me all the way back to my family, to the values that were modeled for me, and to the safety of being deeply loved. Ultimately, to the words of the one I claim to follow.

What I began to realize was that these answers pointed to a very specific place I now occupy. The middle.

In today’s culture, that’s a fairly radical place to be. The radical middle.

I was told I inhabit it well.

That’s where the next book was born. Not from the need to convince, but from the desire and ability to articulate. I won’t lie, it hasn’t been easy.

I’m writing for those who feel it in their gut that something’s off. Who know deep down there has to be another way. They see the games being played: the business of religion, the theater of politics, and the ringmasters in the ideological circus weaponizing real people as pawns.

I’m writing for those who don’t fit cleanly. Who don’t want to be told they must pick a side. Who are done being played, pacified, or labeled. I’m writing because I can.

Yes, it’s a position that some find polarizing. It disrupts the narrative. It breaks the stereotype. It might even be objectionable to those who’ve only ever learned to live at the edges.

Real impact? That comes when you stop reciting the lines you were given, and start writing your own life.

If you’re living in the tension, asking better questions, or waking up to something deeper, The Radical Middle is for you.

Andrea Leigh, Bestselling author of Do You Still Like Football and The Radical Middle, coming late July 2025