When a child grows up with a single mentally ill mother, chaos seems normal. How did Sarah LaBrie find her way to a life not defined by fear and confusion? In part, it was through writing, whether or not she knew she was trying to heal on the page. And in part it was through love. Her memoir, No One Gets to Fall Apart, follows her as she finds her way, with inevitable gains and losses. In beautiful prose she captures her childhood and her mother's schizophrenia, and all the steps it took to create a life for herself.

 

Guest Sarah LaBrie is the author of No One Gets to Fall Apart, a 2024 New York Times Notable Book and Editors’ Pick and a best memoir of the year according to NPR, Elle and Esquire. Born in the Bay Area and raised in Third Ward in Houston, Texas, she lives in Los Angeles where she works as a TV writer. She was most recently a producer on the HBO and Starz television show, Minx. She also wrote on Blindspotting (Starz), Made for Love (MAX), and Love, Victor (Hulu/Disney). Her work appears in The Guardian, Guernica, Lit Hub, Electric Literature and the Los Angeles Review of Books and her libretti have been performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Apollo Theater. She’s held residencies at Yaddo, UCross and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She holds an MFA from NYU where she was a Writers in the Schools Fellow.