Author Leslie Jamison has been compared to some of the American greats, Joan Didion and Susan Sontag. A novelist and essayist, Jamison's writing style blends journalism and memoir.
Her previous works The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath, and The Empathy Exams - offer unsparing details about her life - and also launched her onto bestseller lists.
Her latest work, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, excavates three tumultuous years; new motherhood, a marriage breakdown, and navigating a life as a solo parent.
Leslie Jamison is the current director of the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and is speaking at the Auckland Writers Festival next month.