Founded in Montana in 2026, Snowlight Press is an independent publishing imprint dedicated to literary nonfiction and documentary storytelling exploring institutional systems, mental health, public record, resilience, and the human experience.
Inspired by themes of winter, clarity, endurance, and illumination in difficult places, Snowlight Press seeks to publish thoughtful work grounded in truth, reflection, and emotional honesty.
Coming Soon from Snowlight Press
Permission Is Not Granted
A Documentary Memoir
ONE EMPLOYEE. ONE FIGHT. THE PUBLIC RECORD.
“The answer is no. Permission is not granted.”
With those eight words, sent in a corporate email at 12:15 PM on November 27, 2023, a major healthcare system slammed the door on one of its own employees during a severe psychiatric crisis.
Bethany Curtis was not asking for a vacation. She was a longtime healthcare worker facing a devastating relapse of Major Depressive Disorder. Alone in Montana and terrified of the isolation that would accompany a leave of absence restricted to the “immediate vicinity” of her home under company policy, she asked for permission to travel so she could stabilize while surrounded by family support.
Instead of help, she received suspicion, hostility, and a denial issued within hours. Internal emails described her medical emergency as a departmental “disruption,” questioned her motives, and warned that she would face termination if she traveled.
Four days later, overwhelmed by depression and fear, Bethany considered ending her life.
But she survived.
And she did something the institution never expected: she fought back.
In Permission Is Not Granted, Bethany Curtis takes readers inside a gripping legal battle against one of Montana’s largest healthcare systems. Representing herself in court, she transformed corporate emails, internal policies, and medical records into evidence exposing how bureaucratic systems can dehumanize the very people entrusted with caring for others.
Part legal thriller, part memoir, and part exposé, this is the story of one woman refusing to disappear beneath a corporate narrative. It is a chronicle of survival, resilience, and the power of the public record to force hidden truths into the light.
Some stories they try to bury.
This one is on the record.
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