Running Into The Night

New York City, 1979. At just seven years old, Joanna is sent out into the streets to deliver cocaine. By day, she is left alone in a locked apartment in Jackson Heights. By night, she lies awake, afraid she may not survive until morning.

After two years of instability and fear, Joanna is placed into foster care. But safety proves elusive, and the system meant to protect her begins to mirror the very harm she is trying to escape.

In Running Into the Night, Marina Aris delivers a searing, first-hand account of a childhood shaped by abandonment, violence, and the quiet resilience required to endure both. With unflinching honesty, she traces the lasting impact of neglect while illuminating the strength it takes to break free from cycles that seem impossible to escape.

This is not only a story of survival, but of reckoning and truth. For readers drawn to raw, intimate memoirs of resilience and transformation, Running Into the Night is a powerful reminder of what it means to endure, and ultimately, to reclaim one’s life.

2nd Edition to be released in 2026

"It takes courage to write any book, but a personal memoir about a childhood of fear, neglect, and abuse is a whole other level of bravery. Despite only rare and brief examples of kindness or integrity, Marina Aris has risen time and time again to prove she has both. Breaking horrific cycles of rage and violence, she has achieved self-awareness and perspective through painful reflection and fierce determination. This book is moving and important."

BETH KALLMAN WERNER

BEHIND THE SCENES EXTRAS

Stigma of foster care blog post by Marina Aris

The Stigma Surrounding Fostered Children

This is one of the hardest truths to write: achievement doesn't heal childhood trauma. You can build a beautiful life, earn degrees, create a family, and still feel like that displaced child inside.

Running from the Daylight

More than 20 years ago when I started writing my memoir, I had no idea I would one day be the mother to a son and two daughters. And that despite growing up without a mother, father or family I would eventually find my way to becoming the kind of mother I wish I'd had. The kind of mother who loves without condition and who cherishes every precious moment. I worry, perhaps too often about the imperfect things. The divorce that couldn't be avoided. My history as an abused foste

Image of dandelions representing innocence of childhood

Vulnerability & Writing About Lost Innocence

Writing about being vulnerable, desperate, and lost requires a different kind of courage than writing about survival and triumph. It requires admitting you weren't always strong, weren't always making good choices, weren't always the hero of your own story. But that's where the truth lives. And that's what readers need to see.