Mental Health Awareness Month highlights the importance of mental wellness and promotes advocacy, sharing, compassion, and the dismantling of stereotypes. Mental health conditions are wide-ranging and include PTSD, OCD, generalized anxiety, depression, postpartum depression, schizophrenia, suicidal ideation, and more. The following books—literary fiction, romance, memoirs, and essays—were written by authors who have personal experience living with mental health challenges and speak to the importance of continued dialogue surrounding mental health. These titles, and those selected from previous years, are available as a downloadable spreadsheet.

FICTION

Austin, Emily. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. Washington Square Press. Jun. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781982167363. Fiction/Literary

Chan, Jessamine. The School for Good Mothers. Simon & Schuster. Jan. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781982156121. Fiction/Literary

Dong, Maria. Liar, Dreamer, Thief. Grand Central Publishing. Jan. 2023. 336p. ISBN 9781538723562. Fiction/Psychological

Escoria, Juliet. Juliet the Maniac. Melville House. May. 2019. 336p. ISBN 9781612197593. Fiction/Coming Of Age

Haig, Matt. The Midnight Library. Viking. Sept. 2020. 304p. ISBN 9780525559474. Fiction/Women

Hibbert, Talia. Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Avon. Nov. 2019. 384p. ISBN 9780062941206. Fiction/Romance/Contemporary

Jimenez, Abby. Yours Truly. Forever. Apr. 2023. 416p. ISBN 9781538704394. Fiction/Romance/Contemporary

Ozlu. Cold Nights of Childhood. Transit Books. May. 2023. 160p. ISBN 9781945492693. Fiction/Literary

Simpson, Mona. Commitment. Knopf. Mar. 2023. 416p. ISBN 9780593319277. Fiction/Family Life/Siblings

Solomon, Rachel Lynn. Weather Girl. Berkley. Jan. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780593200148. Fiction/Romance/Workplace

NONFICTION

Bennett, Andrea. Like a Boy but Not a Boy. Arsenal Pulp Press. Oct. 2020. 272p. ISBN 9781551528212. Social Science/LGBTQ+ Studies/Transgender Studies

Cook, Courtney. The Way She Feels. Tin House Books. Jun. 2021. 250p. ISBN 9781951142599. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Danquah, Nana-Ama. Willow Weep for Me. W. W. Norton & Company. Oct. 2023. 304p. ISBN 9781324050612. Biography & Autobiography/Medical (incl. Patients)

Henick, Mark. So-Called Normal. HarperCollins Publishers. Jan. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781443455039. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Hiller, Alice. bird of winter. Pavilion Poetry. Apr. 2019. 86p. ISBN 9781800348691. Poetry

Ikpi, Bassey. I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying. Harper Perennial. Aug. 2019. 272p. ISBN 9780062698346. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Lawson, Jenny. Broken (in the best possible way). Henry Holt and Co. Apr. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781250077035. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Mehler Paperny, Anna. Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me. The Experiment. Mar. 2020. 352p. ISBN 9781615194926. Psychology/Psychopathology/Depression

Tung, Debbie. Everything Is OK. Andrews McMeel Publishing. Sept. 2022. 208p. ISBN 9781524863272. Humor/Form/Comic Strips & Cartoons

Wang, Esme Weijun. The Collected Schizophrenias. Graywolf Press. Feb. 2019. 224p. ISBN 9781555978273. Literary Collections/Essays