Erin Williams is a Believer Book Award nominated graphic memoirist and illustrator whose work has appeared in MoMA Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Buzzfeed, Salon, The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, and other publications. She has written and illustrated ten books, including the best-selling Big Activity Book series with Tarcher Perigee. She has an undergraduate degree from NYU in Creative Writing, completed post-bacc work in Biology and Chemistry at Brooklyn College, and is currently an MFA candidate at Hunter College. She teaches studio art and narrative medicine to illustration majors at Parsons, The New School.
Select Praise for HOW TO TAKE CARE:
“A healing book for the world weary and traumatized, the over-burdened & under-mothered. This elegantly illustrated and inspired collaboration has a cure on every page. Hilarious and brave, tender and wise. Buy this book for yourself, and anybody else who needs a dang break.”—Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of The Liars’ Club, Cherry, Lit, and Art of Memoir
"Entering the world of this book—and it truly eels like a world, lushly illustrated, radiating tenderness and honesty—feels like sitting by a window and talking with a bighearted friend who also happens to be funny as f-ck, and eating hot fudge sundaes while a rainstorm rages outside. The sky is dark, and the flood might be coming, but the air is bristling with candor and compassion, just like these pages, which are full of hard-won insights attuned to the body, alive to the soul, and always aware of their entwinement. Something in this book will crack open a window in your life, I promise you—to let in the smell of the rain, the cold moonlight, the snow under streetlamps, the dawn."—Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
"With warmth and compassion, Williams and Novotny have created a reassuring, loving, and essential guide to taking care. If, like me, you are sure you were absent the day they handed out the life manuals, it’s here now. You will love this book, but even better, this book will love you back."—Elizabeth Crane, author of This Story Will Change
“How to Take Care feels like a comfortable cup of tea with your wise but hilarious friends. Erin and Kate offer, in warm, bite-size pieces, offerings of healing that make do-able that ever illusive idea of “self-care.” [They] deftly weave personal experience, clinical expertise and curiosity, providing us with hopeful resources to honor the past and move confidently into our futures.”—Rebecca Feldman, midwife, psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychotherapist
“How to Take Care has the feeling of cracking open a wise auntie’s grimoire in that it is both referential and ancestral—a collection of hard-earned knowings, lovingly compiled. My heart beams thinking of this timeless book being passed down from hand to hand, kitchen to kitchen, generation to generation.”—Brittany Carmona-Holt, birthworker, educator, and author of Tarot for Pregnancy: A Companion for Radical Magical Birthing Folks
Select Praise for COMMUTE:
Long-listed for the 2019 Believer Book Award for Nonfiction
Named a Best Book of 2019 by Book Riot, The A.V. Club, and The Strand
"Williams does not shy away from her shame. She is also angry, and she knows she is not alone, and that brilliant anger is where the book becomes truly great. Her confidence—and literal straight gaze at the reader, full of vulnerability and challenge—makes this volume a critique, a lament, and a sigh. As Williams elegantly argues, many women need all three. This sharp and splendidly drawn memoir will strike a strong chord in the current moment. "―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“One day’s commute offers time for the author to reflect on sexual predators, alcoholism, and the experiences she understands better now than she did at the time…A catharsis for the author that fits perfectly within a pivotal period for society and culture at large.”―Kirkus Reviews
"...[Williams] adds an eloquent voice to the chorus of stories testifying to the daily experiences of women under patriarchy.Commuteis a book that really should be read by everyone."―BookPage, Starred Review
“This is welcoming, soul-baring, stunningly interconnected, and very discussable.”―Booklist
"[An] extraordinary graphic novel..."―Ms. Magazine
“Williams is as unapologetic in this book as she is vulnerable, which makes for a unique, timely, and powerful read.”―The Beat
“Commute is a formidable, defiant statement of vulnerability leading to strength.”―The Comics Journal
Select Praise for The Big Activity Book series:
The Everybody Gets Anxious Activity Book
“This interactive workbook, geared toward creative kids who are nervous or overwhelmed, encourages readers to learn new strategies for self-soothing and build self-awareness through drawing and writing. An engaging resource that will help kids navigate anxiety with imagination.”―Kirkus Reviews
The Big Fat Activity Book for Pregnant People
"Funny as hell (they had me at the constipated kitten coloring page). This book should be at every baby shower.”―Amy Morrison, founder of Pregnant Chicken
"A down-to-earth, hilarious, indispensable companion that will help pregnant people everywhere keep their wits about them while growing a human inside them. I wish I'd had this when I was pregnant, and am almost tempted to get pregnant again so that I can use it (except, no)."―Emily Gould, author of Friendship
"Nothing worked to keep hope alive when I was pregnant. Not Saltines, ginger ale, ratty nausea bands. Definitely not party pics from my slimmer, drunker days. If only I'd had The Big Fat Activity Book for Pregnant People. It's got forty weeks’ worth of distractions, jokes, compassion, and satisfying meanness about America's Military-Radiant-Pregnancy Complex. This book is a public service for all those involved in the hideous miracle of human gestation."―Virginia Heffernan, author of Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art and host of This is Critical
“My new favorite thing! I just had a baby, and I am already looking forward to my next pregnancy when I will most definitely be cuddled up with this book, laughing my way through each page. It is a relatable activity book that is sure to ease any pregnant woman's mind, and I will absolutely be purchasing it for all of my pregnant friends!”―Audrey Scheck, West Coast Digital Director, Us Weekly
“This book will help you achieve the chill vibes you’d normally get from drinking alcohol, eating soft cheese, or being able to get up off the couch.”―Beth Newell, creator of Reductress, author of How to Win at Feminism
The Big Activity Book for Anxious People
“I’ve tried apps, mediation, exercise, mindfulness, doctors, meds, and more to help my ever-growing beast of anxiety but nothing put it into perspective—or made me laugh more—than Reid and Williams’ smart, sassy, and absolutely genius The Big Activity Book for Anxious People. From anxiety check-ins to coloring to concrete suggestions for soothers that actually really and truly work, just seeing this book on my desk every morning makes me breathe easier. It should be required reading for everyone I know.”―Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author (and anxious person) of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You
“We’re big fans of the Reid/Williams duo - and The Big Activity Book for Anxious People is genius.”―Fresh Starts Registry
“Absolutely obsessed… I don’t know how it’s possible for a person to be so funny. [Jordan and Erin] are geniuses.”―Modern Mom Probs
The Big Fat Activity Book for Digital Detox
“Digital Detox is the best throwback since you found that old mixtape you had forgotten about. So make a cup of tea (wine) and pick up this book. The internet will still love you when you return.”―Uli Beutter Cohen, founder and editor of the Subway Book Review
“For years, I’ve averaged 19.5 hours/day on my phone, and my wife has turned to Alexa for tenderness and affection. Then we spent a weekend together with The Big Activity Book for Digital Detox and rediscovered that life can be so much more than clicks, likes, and latent anxiety. This book is the most important purchase you will ever make.”―Brian Platzer, author of The Body Politic
“We could all use a digital detox. This book is perfectly on point, filled with humor and wit.”―Karen Robinovitz, founder of Digital Brand Architects and the Sloomoo Institute
The Big Fat Activity Book for Divorced People
“Being divorced just means you are a bitch who has lived. This delightfully subversive activity book helps people reimagine their happiness. Instead of drunk texting your ex, use this activity book to laugh your way to realizing you were always better off without them. Doing this book made me laugh, cry, rage, and heal just a little bit.”―Lyz Lenz, author of God Land and Belabored