About the Book
Feed Me is Erika Nichols-Frazer's candid and penetrating account of growing up with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. From the age of five, she felt a storm inside her, a battle raging between light and dark. Yet no one -- not her family, her teachers, or her doctors -- could explain the frightening places she would find herself.
When she was nine, she proclaimed herself a vegetarian; and at ten, she taught herself to cook. Whenever she worked with food, she was happy, hopeful, and in better control of her moods. Somehow, the flavors and textures of her meals were the antidotes to the chaos in her mind. Cooking nurtured her; it centered her. With every meal she prepared for herself and others, she was able to feed the light inside her. She was able to nourish herself, body, and soul.
Feed Me is a story about a young woman's journey to save herself. It's about sustenance, and the ways in which we feed ourselves and each other. It's a reminder of how food brings us together, and how learning to feed our bodies teaches us to love ourselves. It's also about the connections we make with others that help us to prevail, the daily rituals that help us to heal, and the food we prepare, and share with the people we love.
About the Author :
Erika Nichols-Frazer is a writer, editor, and poet from the Green Mountains of Vermont. She has published numerous works and won awards for both her fiction and poetry. She is the Editor for A Tether to This World: Stories & Poems of Recovery, (Main Street Rag, 2021) and is the author of the forthcoming collection of poems Staring Too Closely (Main Street Rag, 2023). She is also a journalist for a small-town newspaper and a reading and writing mentor to young adults. In her free time, she cooks for family and friends using the bounty of vegetables harvested from her garden. Her favorite recipes include spinach gnocchi in Gorgonzola sauce and artichokes drizzled in hollandaise. An explorer of the world, and the world of books, she is a graduate of both Bennington College and Sarah Lawrence College. Erika lives in Waitsfield, Vermont with her husband, two dogs, a cat and nine chickens.
Review :
"For those living with a mental health condition, life can feel like being on a carousel spinning out of control---being unable to slow the speed of one's thoughts. In her book Feed Me, Erika Nichols-Frazer offers her reader a lifeline---that to survive, one must nourish oneself. She inspires us with her accounts of creative eating and shows us how the very act of preparing a meal can distract attention from the whirling carousel of one's mind. Her clever, direct, and honest writing about her own experience offers us the most valued ingredient of all---hope. Feed Me is without a doubt, essential reading for anyone struggling with mental health." -Mimi Baird, author of "He Wanted the Moon".
"Erika Nichols-Frazer writes with compelling, unflinching honesty in her memoir, Feed Me, about family, mental health, and a struggle with anorexia. Her journey to learn to nourish and love herself is full of genuine hope. This is a beautiful story that anyone who has wrestled with eating disorders or low self-esteem, should read." - Hannah Howard, author of "Feast" and "Plenty"; 2022 recipient of the National Eating Disorders Association's Inspire Award.
"In her beautifully crafted memoir about injury, mental illness, and healing, Erika Nichols-Frazer reminds us that while families are often the source of our deepest wounds, they are also where we find belonging and a place where our bodies and hearts are fed and nurtured. "Feed Me" is the story of how a young woman, having lost her desire to care for herself, and her passion to live, discovered a life of plenty, where love and food were abundant."
-Laurie Kahn, Psychotherapist, founder and director of Womencare Counseling & Training Center, and author of "Baffled by Love: Stories of the Lasting Impact of Childhood Trauma Inflicted by Loved Ones".
"Young women today focus on their appearance for too much of their identity. With social media, the constant pressure to look like the ideal of the day is causing an epidemic of body dissatisfaction, self-loathing, and eating disorders. What can be done about it? In her book Feed Me, Erika Nichols-Frazer recounts how as a young woman she starved herself, hated herself, and wanted to be someone else. Then how she discovered that by simply embracing food, feeding herself, and feeding others, she could learn to love who she really was. Hers is a powerful and inspiring story for anyone who has ever struggled with body image or self-esteem. It is a testimony to the importance of a healthy relationship with the food we eat, and the bodies we inhabit. And a reminder that when we feed ourselves, we not only nourish our inner strength but also, our unique beauty."- Denise Hamburger, Founder and Executive Director of Be Real - committed to providing body confidence education and resources to schools everywhere.
