My Body Is a Book of Rules

Radio Interview: Elissa Washuta talks about and reads from her memoir, My Body is a Book of Rules. --Montana Public Radio

You should have [My Body Is a Book of Rules] on your radar now. . . . Washuta's story is . . . an ultra-modern take on contemporary femininity, mental illness, and identity.
--Cosmopolitan, "12 Memoirs by Women That Will Get You Through Anything"

In Body, Washuta shows why younger voices and voices outside the mainstream matter. They show us the immediate implications of our current culture on our psyches, bodies, and hearts. In her refusal to apologize or sugarcoat her thoughts and behavior, and her refusal to let others off the hook for their actions, Washuta forces us to reflect on our own experiences and draw the connections.
--The Rumpus

The reader is strapped to a rollercoaster narrative... [as] Washuta tries to manage her expected identity and her own shaky sense of self.
--KNKX Radio

I have nothing but admiration for My Body is a Book of Rules, the shimmering new autobiography by Elissa Washuta: Open, ruthless, and more self-critical than any other non-fiction writer I've read recently. The book is both dark and hilarious, sometimes in the same sentence. Even when the events of the narrative seem to repeat themselves, it isn't an editorial oversight or sloppy writing; the repetitions are signals of what matters, the writer picking them up again, holding them at a different angle, searching for new answers. It feels honest and intimate. Maggie Nelson writes in The Argonauts: "I do not yet understand the relationship between writing and happiness, or writing and holding." Washuta writes with the same urgency and fiery curiosity. A gift for those who appreciate a good autobiography and fine, precise writing.
--Tin House Magazine

I regret my "Naughty Native" Halloween Costume, by Elissa Washuta in Salon

My Body is a Book of Rules is not a traditional memoir. Through linked essays set in her early 20s, she tells the story of her bipolar diagnosis and its early treatment alongside "coming around to the fact" that she was raped and then sexually assaulted. She set out to intentionally write a book that couldn't be easily pinned down, and in doing so has given us an intimate and unflinching look into the nuances of identity and culture.
--Samantha Updegrave for Bitch Magazine

My Body is a Book of Rules' is a collection of calamities -- bitterly funny, fierce, sometimes crass and sometimes heartbreaking."
-Barbara Lloyd McMichael for The Seattle Times

PEN America Interview

My Body is a Book of Rules, is a work of art, organizationally and emotionally. The reader rides the rollercoaster life of a young woman who identifies as "Cowlitz/Watlala, European-American and bipolar." She excavates these categories in a unique way that is intricately and skillfully structured, but seamless and captivating for her readers.
--Pasadena Weekly