A Midwife for Harrowing Memoirs

Many writers have specialties: mystery, romance, true crime, even vampires. But Lisa Pulitzer has developed a curious subgenre that she has nearly all to herself: the escape story.

Ms. Pulitzer specializes in writing books with women who have abandoned groups that include, from left, a polygamous sect, a vehemently anti-homosexual Baptist church and the Church of Scientology.

Ms. Pulitzer helps young women who have fled religious sects or cultlike organizations give their accounts in compelling, often best-selling prose. “I’m now the official cult gal,” she said.