It’s business time.
I keep hearing that sentence as I work on Unfit Parent publicity. And then my brain plays the 2007 Flight of the Conchords song. I just rewatched the (18-year-old!) YouTube video and it is not remotely applicable to a book about disabled parenting. But I have a feeling I will continue hearing it in my head for the next two months.
Unfit Parent will be out in the world in two months. During this time, I’m writing essays, recording podcast interviews, and meeting various media to try to broaden the reach of Unfit Parent as much as possible.
I’m also doing all of that while resting as much as I need to (which is a lot).
So far, the initial book feedback has been very encouraging. Generous blurbs (see the end of the newsletter) plus some incredible future media coverage (which I will not list here because that probably isn’t allowed). Despite promising early signs, I’m doing my best to find a way to manage this release with some level of equanimity.
The thesis of the book is that disability culture can impact ALL parenting culture in a positive way. For example, disability forces a reckoning with how much we all need each other, which parenting also does. The introduction to dependence and weakness can be quite jarring if you haven’t been accustomed to that way of life. Unfit Parent also traces my own shift from a manic perfectionist to someone who has had her death grip on control pried open by my sensitive body.
I’m doing my best to apply the lessons that disability has taught me to this book release. Just like with parenting, I’m attempting to do what I can while knowing very little in this life is actually up to me and that my physical limits are not things I can overcome with willpower or something I should feel ashamed of.
Also, I gave my heart to this book. I told the truth as I knew it on every page. I think people can sense when you mean what you’re saying and even if they have different experiences, earnestness resonates. I am going to keep trusting that.
If you want to support Unfit Parent, you have a few options:
Pre-order it!
Reply to this newsletter or email me at slicejessica at gmail dot com and tell me you want to be on the launch team. That means you will get an early (PDF) copy of the book and that you will review it on Goodreads and Amazon.
Tell people about it.
My plan for the newsletter is this:
March - talk about Unfit Parent
April - talk about what it’s like to release a book
May - back to regularly scheduled programming
Thank you thank you thank you to those who have sent encouraging messages and who have ordered the book.
It’s business time!!
“Jessica Slice’s story of disabled parenting will feel familiar to anyone who has been told their body is ‘not enough’ or ‘too much.’ Slice’s work deftly tells a deeply moving story, while grounding readers in the many ways ableism shows up in parenthood. Unfit Parent is a must-read for anyone committed to building a just and accessible world for parents and kids alike.”
—Aubrey Gordon, New York Times best-selling author and cohost of Maintenance Phase
“This is such a glorious, revelatory book. Jessica Slice cuts through all the judgment and stereotypes to reveal the truth: disabled people are, in many ways, uniquely suited to and skilled at parenthood and are sources of wisdom, ingenuity, courage, and joy that the entire world can learn from. I am a nondisabled man with no children and I gained so much from this book.”
—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of An Immense World
“An absorbing portrayal of what it’s really like to be a disabled parent, including the shocking and understudied discrimination they face. In rigorously researched and open-hearted prose, Slice illuminates the joys and pains of disabled parenting, arriving at the crucial revelation: the skillset of being disabled is far from disqualifying and is, in fact, uniquely well-tuned to the demands of parenting. Unfit Parent is a fierce, compassionate, and unremittingly lucid book that I’ll be returning to again and again.”
—Andrew Leland, Pulitzer Prize–finalist author of The Country of the Blind
“A beautiful, transformative book about being a parent in a world that rejects frailty and weakness.”
—Rachel Aviv, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us
“Unfit Parent is a love letter to disabled parenting—an impeccably researched, reported, and referenced love letter—as well as an artfully drawn map of an exquisite, convivial society that can only be achieved with the creativity, skill, and joy of disabled people. Jessica Slice bends our beliefs about bodies and reorients us toward our need for one another, the messy beauty of our interconnectedness.”
—Angela Garbes, author of Essential Labor and Like a Mother
“This vulnerable, insightful, and thoughtful book is a must-read for any parent seeking a map for how to care for their children—while also caring for their own needs—with creativity, community, and joy. It made me reflect on my own parenting and deeply held beliefs. A gift.”
—Rachel Somerstein, journalist and author of Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section
“Jessica Slice’s Unfit Parent challenges the narrative of what it means to parent in a world that wasn’t designed for everyone. Powerful, necessary, and filled with raw honesty, the story of Jessica’s lived experience as a disabled parent offers an invaluable perspective that will resonate with anyone who cares about inclusivity and accessibility. This book is a must-read for anyone who believes in a more compassionate and equitable world.”
—Alyssa Blask Campbell, CEO of Seed & Sew and author of Tiny Humans, Big Emotions
ok, story time.
I had a mammogram a month-ish ago, and it showed a lump that needed an ultrasound. When I went to get the ultrasound (everything is fine), the woman doing the scan had a strong accent.
Tech: And do you have any plans?
Me: What kind of plans?
Tech: (points to breasts) breast.
Me: Do I have any breast plans?
Tech: yes.
Me: Like, plans with my breasts?
Tech: (annoyed) Never mind. You don’t.
For the whole scan, I kept thinking about how maybe if someone _does_ have breast plans, they would definitely know and that my confusion must mean that I didn’t. I tried to think of possible breast plans.
At home, I told David the whole story.
David: Breast IMPLANTS, you absolute weirdo.
I howled with laughter, and am now going to start referring to appointments as my "breast plans."
Looking forward to the book! (And what lovely blurbs!!)
So exciting, really looking forward to Unfit Parent.