New York Times bestselling author Lyz Lenz provided the keynote address at Niagara University’s annual women’s studies program banquet and awards ceremony on March 18, 2025.
Lenz talked about losing her job as a columnist with her local newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she had been the target of hate mail campaigns for writing op-eds that supported issues such as the right to an abortion and defending LGBTQ rights. While she became afraid, not knowing how she would support her two children as a single mother, her experience also instilled fear in her colleagues, who became less willing to speak out on controversial topics.
This sense of fear “negatively affects our decision-making abilities and causes anxiety, depression, and poor physical health,” Lenz said. “Further, fear harms communities and society by corroding social trust and civic engagement. Politicians, in particular, effectively leverage fear to manipulate voters and pass legislation designed to protect us from these fears, real and imagined.
“When politicians tell us to be afraid, that is when we should be the most courageous, because on the other side of that fear is our freedom,” she continued, noting that the only antidote to fear is to take action.
“You’re wondering if it’s safe to say the things you want to say, and I am telling you, you have to keep saying them, because they only try to silence you when you are right,” she concluded.
Lenz’s 2024 book, “This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life,” was an instant New York Times best seller. She is also the author of “God Land” which explores the religious and political divides in the post-2016 election landscape, and “Belabored,” which examines the ways that religious, historical, and cultural myths about pregnancy have shaped how we treat pregnant people. Lenz’s essay “All the Angry Women” was included in the anthology “Not that Bad” and offers a searing analysis of how society discredits and stifles women’s anger. She has also written for The Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, and The New York Times.
