EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

‘It’s My Time to Talk’: Edgecombe student publishes book

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/edgecombe-county-its-my-time-to-talk-e-mans-inspiration/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:
Photo courtesy of Emmanuel "E-Man" Highsmith

Meet Emmanuel “E-Man” Highsmith, a junior at SouthWest Edgecombe High School who wants to be an inspiration for his peers through his book, “It’s My Time to Talk.”

“I decided to do a journal one day because I was just so depressed. A lot of stuff was eating me up inside,” E-Man shared. “I was mad for no reason, and I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I was really stubborn and didn’t want to express, so I just wrote.” 

Since then, using his journal to release his feelings has matured into E-Man publishing his own book last year. He began the journey by posting uplifting messages on his Youtube channel, THE EMANSOBREEZY SHOW. Initially thinking that the content may lead up to a documentary, he ultimately decided to reach out to Writer’s Republic, a publishing company, to release his message to the world. 

Cover photo, “It’s My Time to Talk,” written by Emmanuel “E-Man” Highsmith.” Published by Writer’s Republic. Photo courtesy of Emmanuel Highsmith.

Life saver

The book follows his journey through hardships, detailing how he persevered and what he learned a long the way. E-Man, who credits writing with saving his life, learned that sharing his story helped him find peace with his emotions and experiences.

The young author named that dealing with the hurt of losing his father had a significant impact on his approach to the book.  He specifically wanted to highlight the importance of dealing with trauma, even if it was from long ago, because he knows that it is something many people can relate to. 

Message to fellow teens

No time is being wasted; his eyes are already on future projects, and he is still set on producing a film or documentary.

For now, E-Man just wants to be an inspiration, specifically encouraging teens to express themselves.

“We kind of hold back from some things, we don’t want to tell some things, you think, ‘this is just a little embarrassing,’ or could be uncomfortable, but honestly, you just have to get out of that comfort zone,” he said. “You never know, it could help you and also impact so many others that felt the same way you felt. So, honestly, I would say really, truly, just get comfortable with it.”

Emmanuel “E-Man” Highsmith’s “It’s My Time To Talk” is available online on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other platforms.