Fans of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild will root for Anne Abel as she intrepidly sets out alone for Australia at the age of sixty, seeking to capture some Bruce Springsteen energy and fight off her lifelong, debilitating depression.

At the age of fifty-nine, Anne has never been to a concert. Then, she reluctantly goes to a Bruce Springsteen concert—a man she knows nothing about—to spend time with her son and daughter-in-law. For three-plus hours Bruce Springsteen’s energy, humanity, and enthusiasm lift her out of her lifelong depression and makes her feel alive.

A year later, due to increasing classroom violence where she taught, Anne walks out the door thinking, I’m never coming back. But, getting into her car to go home, she realizes that because she suffers with severe recurrent depression, without the structure and focus of teaching she will be at risk for falling into a deep depression. She’s been inpatient twice at a psychiatric hospital, had three regimens of electroconvulsive shock therapy, and tried over twenty medications. Anne needs a new and different plan. Then she remembers: in four months Bruce Springsteen will be touring in Australia. So even though Anne hates to travel and be alone, she books the trip. Eight concerts, five cities, twenty-six days. She hopes that harnessing some of Bruce Springsteen’s energy will keep her out of the abyss.

Anne doesn’t go on this trip to change. But much to her surprise, she returns home a different person.

Anne Abel is an author, storyteller and influencer. Her first memoir, “Mattie, Milo, and Me,” about unwittingly rescuing an aggressive dog, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in New York City. It was published in 2024. Her second memoir, “High Hopes,” is about fighting depression by following Bruce Springsteen’s Australia tour, at the age of 60, even though she hates to travel and hates to be alone, and hadn’t known what a Bruce Springsteen was a year earlier. This story won a Moth StorySLAM in Chicago. It will be published by She Writes Press on Sept. 23, 2025, Bruce Springsteen’s 76th birthday. In January 2025, she was featured on Newsweek.com: “Boomer’s Story About How She Met Husband of 45 Years Captivates Internet.” Her credentials include an MFA from The New School for Social Research, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BS in chemical engineering from Tufts University. She has published on topics ranging from dogs lovable and difficult, to coping with depression, family dysfunction, generational trauma, overcoming writer’s block and being a FaceTime grandmother. She has freelanced for multiple outlets and formerly wrote a weekly column, “The Homefront,” for Main Line Welcomat. She taught English and creative writing at the Community College of Philadelphia. Anne lives in New York City with her husband, Andy, and Wendell, a one-year-old cavapoo.