FINALIST FOR THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE Named a Best Memoir of 2025 (So Far) by BookPage and Real Simple * "A beautiful story about an extraordinary mother's gift of love and hope." --Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle * "Candid...Heartbreaking...Illuminating." --Oprah Daily
From "a writer who's absolutely going places" (Roxane Gay), a "bewitching...innovative" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut memoir about a mother-daughter relationship across cycles of poverty, separation, and illness, exploring how we forge identity in the face of imminent loss.
When Erika Simpson was growing up, her mother loomed large, almost biblical in her life. A daughter of sharecroppers and middle child of ten, her origin story became a Genesis. Leaving home and a cheating husband while pursuing higher education, her path felt like an Exodus. Her rules for survival, repeated like commandments, guided Erika's own journey into adulthood. And the most important rule? Sallie Carol always preached the power of testimony--which often proved useful in talking her way out of a bind with bill collectors.
But where does a mother's story end and a daughter's begin? In this brave, illuminating memoir, Erika offers a joint recollection of their lives as they navigate the realities of destitution often left undiscussed. Her mother's uncanny ability to endure Job-like trials and manifest New Testament-style miracles made her seem invincible. But while our parents may start out as gods in our lives, through her mother's final months and fifth battle with cancer, Erika captures the moment you realize they are just people.
This gorgeously rendered story of a mother's life through her daughter's eyes weaves together a dual timeline, pulling inspiration from both scripture and pop culture as Erika moves through grief to a place of clarity where she can see who she is without her mom--and because of her.
About the Author :
Erika J. Simpson is a Southern girl living in Denver, Colorado, with her partner and their black cat. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Kentucky and is the recipient of the 2021 MFA Award in Nonfiction. Her essay "If You Ever Find Yourself" was published in Roxane Gay's The Audacity and featured in Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee. This Is Your Mother is her debut memoir, and she also writes fiction for the page and screen.
Review :
"A beautiful story about an extraordinary mother's gift of love and hope--and how, against all odds, that gift triumphs over the harsh realities of life." --Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle
"A debut memoir by the supremely talented Erika J. Simpson is an eloquent reminder that there are many complicated dimensions of mother-daughter relationships, some tender, some funny, some fraught with pain. Simpson urgently invites the reader to follow daughter and mother from Simpson's turbulent childhood in Atlanta, to a coming of age that both separates and further entangles them and finally to the inevitable, heartrending conclusion of their relationship. . . . This Is Your Mother honor[s] what became of their eternal, unbreakable bond." --BookPage (starred review) "A searingly honest book about surviving America at the thorny intersection of race, class, and gender. . . . As it examines entangled family dynamics rooted in faith and loyalty, this poignant memoir reveals the life-long impact, for good and for ill, of the ever-powerful mother-daughter bond." --Kirkus Reviews
"A daughter's long-distance deathwatch animated Simpson's bewitching debut . . . Simpson enlivens the often bleak proceedings with innovative narrative techniques . . . Readers will be wowed." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[A] deeply personal story . . . about the unconditional and imperfectly perfect love between a mother and daughter. . . . [This] book had me in a chokehold and then choked up." --Teri Elam, Rough Draft Atlanta
"Engrossing . . . Readers stay close to this incredible account, told with a mix of heart [and] humor." --Baltimore Style
"A moving story filled with gorgeous language and imagery. Simpson earnestly shares insights into her life, her mother, and how they navigated race, class, and gender in America." --Debutiful
"A story that's as complex as memory itself. . . The dual timeline reveals how the past shapes the present and leads the author to a final understanding of her mother as a person, rather than a parent." --5280 Magazine
"A gorgeous, heart-wrenching book by a writer at the beginning of a long and glorious career. Erika Simpson is a genius storyteller who renders the complexity of love and trauma and poverty and mother loss in a writing style clean as a bone. An astounding story artfully told, the narrative fractures when you need it to--the poetry rises when you need a respite--and the truth shines. This is an important examination of the black mother and daughter that you've never read before, and a truly fearless memoir that goes to the white-hot center without flinching, not even once." --Crystal Wilkinson, author of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts
"A Mother of a Memoir . . . [Simpson] artfully weaves together vignettes from her childhood and young adulthood to tell an evocative story about the moments when you begin to see your parents as people. This unique but relatable portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship is a beautiful tribute that doesn't shy away from complex feelings." --Real Simple, Best Books of 2025 (So Far) "Will have you sobbing, laughing, and, of course, calling up Mom. . . . a touching but unflinching tribute to a complex mother-daughter relationship. With spare yet lyrical prose, Simpson crafts a stunning song to daughterhood as well as a kind of 'gospel according to Mom.'" --Atlanta Magazine
"Candid and at times heartbreaking. . . . With depth, Simpson captures the complexity of mourning an imperfect parent who lacked the ability to provide the financial and emotional stability she desperately craved, while also illuminating how daughters can heal from their messy relationships with their mother." --Oprah Daily "Moves with a quick, incessant urgency. . . . Through all the chaos, though, Sallie Carol endows her daughter with the most valuable of inheritances: the certainty of being fiercely loved." --The New Yorker
"Erika J. Simpson's debut memoir blazes its own path through this familiar yet unpredictable realm. She skillfully utilizes several techniques to elevate what could have been a mournful tale of trauma and loss into something far more eloquent and emotionally affecting . . . formally inventive . . . [Simpson] is a sophisticated writer." --Bookreporter
"Erika J. Simpson's writing--and the deep sense of soul illuminating every word--grabs you by the shoulders. To be frank, this book kicked my ass, in the best way possible." --Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives
"Evocative . . . Intimate . . . Incredible . . . a heartrending portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship that is brimming with compassion and love. This is perhaps what Simpson does best--provide a balanced and comprehensive depiction of a wildly contradictory figure. . . . A spectacular gut-punch." --Atlanta Journal Constitution "It is a very universal story, even if you don't have a strained relationship with your mother, even if you don't happen to be a Black woman walking through the world . . . Oftentimes books are called 'brave' or 'noble' or 'courageous, ' but the word I would really [use] to describe the book [is] 'human.'" --Lena Waithe, Bustle
"In Simpson's hands, those worn out American cliches--poverty, grief, motherhood, to name only a few--take on new life, presented finally and masterfully with all the shocking, messy, undeniably hilarious truth they've always contained. I don't believe suffering is redemptive, but this timeless book almost made me revise my stance. It is a heartbreaking, soul-expanding triumph." --Casey Gerald, author of There Will Be No Miracles Here
"Mother as archive, mother as lesson, mother as love, mother as a set of rules spoken and unspoken--Erika J. Simpson's singular debut memoir, This Is Your Mother, is a powerful story of how to survive America, and how to survive what our parents teach us about themselves and ourselves, too." --Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
