What's Your Grief Wrote a Book!

We wrote a book!

We're saying this upfront because we sometimes bury the lead, especially when that lead is about us. Our aversion to self-promotion has been our Achilles heel since starting WYG. But we believe in this book, so we're determined not to get in our own way!

We're eager to share the story of how this book came to be. But if you just want the basics (what it is and where to buy it), skip to the bottom.

How This Book Came to Be.

When we started the website WYG in 2012, we said,

"We are committed to delve into anything and everything grief-related and to provide a place where people can come to support and be supported."

We vowed to leave no grief stone unturned, and, almost ten years later, we're still turning.

Over the years, we've thought endlessly about grief and loss; we've written, reflected, and refined our outlook. And every once in a while, we'd say that we should bring the most helpful stuff together into a cohesive and tangible whole.

Yes, like a book!

But writing a book was always a "maybe, someday" thing for us. It was never something we felt a sense of urgency about doing--maybe because we're lucky enough to have this site where we can write in-depth on whatever topics feel most important to us.

Or perhaps because our mission has always been to fill gaps in grief support when we see them. And so many great writers have already lined the shelves with required reading about grief. We weren't sure we had anything new or needed to add to the grief literature library.

Some might say it doesn't matter; the more voices talking about grief, the better! But writing a book is a big deal. And we didn't want to do it unless we knew why we were doing it. 

And then 2020 happened and our why started to take shape.

In 2020, we saw loss everywhere--in our friends, families, communities, and the diverse struggles that brought people to What's Your Grief. COVID-19 stole a tragic number of lives. At the same time, people were experiencing immense non-death loss due to a world turned upside down.

On a personal level, we'd also been grappling with new losses related to things like divorce, addiction, and the loss of friends. And it seemed more and more people were coming to WYG with similar experiences. But as we watched our collective sense of loss and suffering grow, we also saw confusion emerge about who gets to grieve and how. 

A Book for All Loss.

We've always thought it important to address all types of loss on the What's Your Grief site. We firmly believe people deserve help and support coping with their losses, whether their losses are related to the death of a loved one or experiences like trauma, divorce, infertility, and so on. And we realized we couldn't think of a general grief book that's addresses grief and loss in a way that can be helpful no matter the loss experienced--so we decided to write one. 

Ultimately, your losses are unique. No book or theory can ever perfectly describe what you're going through or prescribe a path to healing. Instead, a book can help you better understand your grief and loss by providing support, information, guidance, and hope. So when we wrote this book, we were careful to choose a framework that can help the reader make sense of their loss-related experiences, thoughts, emotions, and coping, whatever they may be. 

And fortunately, we were lucky enough to work with a publisher, Quirk Books, who, like us, are a little practical, a little creative, and a little outside of the box. They wanted us to write about grief in a way that was true to us, discussing the topics we felt were most crucial with the same approach and same voice that we use here on WYG. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The What's Your Grief? Book

What's Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss is for people experiencing any type of loss. This book discusses some of the most common grief experiences and breaks down psychological concepts to help you understand your thoughts and emotions. It also shares useful coping tools, and helps the reader reflect on their unique relationship with grief and loss.

We can't tell you exactly how to manage your grief. All losses are unique; no book or theory will ever perfectly describe what you are going through as someone grieving a loss. However, we can use everything we've learned after a decade of writing about grief, and our usual down-to-earth approach, to help grieving people better understand their experiences and find ways to cope with the day-to-day struggle of living with grief. 

If you're a regular reader of What's Your Grief, the decision to approach grief and loss through bite-sized lists should be no surprise. Although grief is immensely complicated, our philosophy has always been that the best way to cope is often one step at a time. And when we say "list," we mean all sorts of informative, nuanced, and creative approaches like interactive lists, bucket lists, not-to-do lists, and more. 

How to Buy the Book & Support What's Your Grief

Over the years, people often ask how they can support 'What's Your Grief'. We usually say, keep reading and sharing. And now we're asking you to do this in a different way. We really hope you'll read our book when it comes out. Or, if you feel like you no longer need a book like this, that you'll consider sharing it with someone who might find some help and comfort in it. The book is officially released on September 27, 2022, but it's available for pre-order now at the following retailers:

• Amazon
• Audible
• Barnes & Noble
• Bookshop.org 
• Books A Million
• Indiebound
• Hudson Booksellers
• Powell's