What Kind of Mother, the debut memoir by Judy Sandler, follows a mother confronting her son’s descent into severe mental illness as what first appears to be substance use disorder evolves into a dual diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As he rejects medication and cycles through alternative treatment programs that ultimately fail him, Sandler reckons with denial, guilt, and the painful realization that she cannot save her son—only he can save himself.
What Kind of Mother will be published on September 8, 2026, by West Virginia University Press.
Sandler’s work has appeared in The New York Times’ Tiny Love Stories, Yale University Journal of Medicine’s The Perch, The Atticus Review, Pangyrus, Grown and Flown, The University of Chicago’s The Awakenings Review, among other publications.
Debutiful is honored to reveal the cover of What Kind of Mother, which was designed by Kelley Galbreath, along with a Q&A with Sandler about its creation.
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