Eat Joy Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers

Named a Best Cookbook of the Year by Martha Stewart Living

"Magnificent illustrations add spirit to recipes and heartfelt narratives. Plan to buy two copies—one for you and one for your best foodie friend." —Taste of Home

This collection of intimate, illustrated essays by some of America’s most well–regarded literary writers explores how comfort food can help us cope with dark times—be it the loss of a parent, the loneliness of a move, or the pain of heartache.

Lev Grossman explains how he survived on “sweet, sour, spicy, salty, unabashedly gluey” General Tso’s tofu after his divorce. Carmen Maria Machado describes her growing pains as she learned to feed and care for herself during her twenties. Claire Messud tries to understand how her mother gave up dreams of being a lawyer to make “a dressed salad of tiny shrimp and avocado, followed by prune–stuffed pork tenderloin.” What makes each tale so moving is not only the deeply personal revelations from celebrated writers, but also the compassion and healing behind the story: the taste of hope.

"If you've ever felt a deep, emotional connection to a recipe or been comforted by food during a dark time, you'll fall in love with these stories."—Martha Stewart Living

“Eat Joy is the most lovely food essay book . . . This is the perfect gift." —Joy Wilson (Joy the Baker)

NATALIE EVE GARRETT is an artist and writer, and the editor of The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes and the forthcoming Lonely Together: 222 Celebrated Writers on the Joys & Struggles of Being Alone. She lives in a town outside Washington, D.C., and along the Potomac River with her husband and two children.

MERYL ROWIN is an illustrator whose work has been commissioned by The New York Times, Lenny Letter, the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards, Travel + Leisure, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Apartment Therapy. She lives in Los Angeles and previously worked on Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally’s memoir, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.