'It's not a mental illness. It's actually a creative coping mechanism.'

What's it like to discover other people living in your own head? In Maggie Walters' debut memoir, she describes her life with dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder (which remains Maggie's preferred term). After surviving years of abuse as a child, Maggie now lives with 40 alters and has spent much of her adulthood learning to understand herself, as well as how to share her experience with others.

In episode 107, she describes living with her alters, how she wrote her memoir, and why, after years of keeping her reality a secret, she's now sharing it with the world.

Maggie Walters lives in the NSW Northern Rivers with her family. As a trauma survivor, she shares her journey towards wholeness, confronting stereotypes around mental health. Her debut memoir, Split, was published in 2024. An early draft of Split was longlisted for the 2022 Richell Emerging Writers Prize.

Get your copy of Split from Booktopia or your local bookshop or library.

Books & authors discussed in this episode:

• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman
• In Bad Faith by Dassi Erlich
• For Life by Ailsa Piper
• The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Upcoming events

• Ashley is teaching Crafting Narrative Drive for the Society of Women Writers NSW on Wednesday 11 November
• Ashley is teaching Year of the Novel for Writing NSW beginning on Wednesday evenings starting 26 February 2025
• The Cold Truth tour is happening in February! Sign up for Ashley's newsletter here for full details

Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get your copies from your local bookshop or your library.

Learn more about James' award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy from your local bookshop or your library.

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson