Written by journalist and professor at the University of Texas-Austin, Mallary Tenore Tarpley, Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery offers a groundbreaking framework for understanding eating disorder recovery.
In Slip, her debut nonfiction book, Mallary explores the under-discussed complexities of eating disorders and recovery from them, interweaving poignant personal stories, immersive reporting and cutting-edge science, weaving together Mallary's own narrative with perspectives from clinicians, researchers, and others with lived experience. In 2023, Mallary received a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the science-related reporting in the book, specifically around the neurobiological and genetic aspects of eating disorders.
When Mallary Tenore Tarpley lost her mother at eleven years old, she wanted to stop time. If growing up meant living without her mother, then she wanted to stay little forever. What started as small acts of food restriction soon turned into a full-blown eating disorder, and a year later, Tarpley was admitted to Boston’s Children’s Hospital. With honesty and grace, Slip chronicles Tarpley’s childhood struggles with anorexia to her present-day experiences grappling with recovery.This book tells Tarpley’s story, but it also transcends her personal narrative. A journalist by trade, Tarpley interviewed and surveyed hundreds of patients, doctors, and researchers to provide a deeper understanding of eating disorder treatment. She draws on this original reporting, as well as cutting-edge science, to illuminate what has changed in the years since she was first diagnosed. As Tarpley came to learn, “full recovery” from an eating disorder is complicated. And that idea provides the basis for the groundbreaking new framework explored in this book: that there is a “middle place” between sickness and full recovery, a place where slips are accepted as part of the process but progress is always possible.With new insights and an uplifting message, Slip brings much-needed attention to an issue that affects many. It offers a beacon of hope with its revolutionary perspective on recovery. This inspiring and life-affirming book is a must-read for individuals with eating disorders, their loved ones, educators, medical professionals, and anyone seeking to understand eating disorders and the path to recovery.
BIOs
Please join the Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Board of Advisors for an Open Mind program featuring Mallary Tenore Tarpley, author of Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, and Dr. Stuart Murray, Director of the Eating Disorders Program in UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry. Their conversation will offer a thoughtful exploration of the science, lived experience, and evolving understanding of eating disorder recovery.
In her debut nonfiction book, Mallary Tenore Tarpley offers a powerful and nuanced look at the complexities of eating disorders and the process of recovery. Drawing from her own lived experience as well as reporting with clinicians, researchers, and others in recovery, Mallary weaves together personal narrative, immersive journalism, and emerging science to explore what recovery truly looks like.
Mallary Tenore Tarpley is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication and the award-winning author of SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery.
SLIP, which was published by Simon & Schuster, is the 2026 recipient of the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences. It also won first place in the PROSE awards’ Clinical Medicine category and was a finalist in the Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher category. While writing SLIP, Mallary received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant, which supported her research and reporting.
Mallary has traveled the country giving talks about eating disorder prevention and recovery, and what she calls “the middle place” between acute sickness and full recovery. She also frequently delivers memoir-writing trainings for organizations such as The Poynter Institute and the Writers’ League of Texas. A journalist by trade, Mallary’s recent articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, and Harvard University’s Nieman Storyboard, among other publications. She also publishes a weekly newsletter, Write at the Edge, featuring writing tips and best practices.
Mallary lives outside of Austin with her husband and two children.
Stuart B. Murray, MSc., DClinPsych., PhD is the Franklin Mint Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, where he serves as Director of the Eating Disorders Program. Dr. Murray is an active clinician-researcher, and has authored more than 300 scientific manuscripts, books and book chapters, and has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally. He holds professional memberships on executive and editorial boards of several high-ranking journals, and was recently recognized by PubMed’s Expertscape among the world’s leading experts in body image research, and eating and feeding disorders research Through his program of research, which uses behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods, he aims to understand the biological and psychological processes underpinning eating disorders, and develop improved treatments to optimize patient outcomes. To date, Dr. Murray’s publications have featured in top tier medical journals, such as JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Neurology, and JAMA Psychiatry. In removing barriers to accessing his scientific works, Dr. Murray has been active in sharing scientific information via media and social media platforms, and has recently featured on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS and Fuse, and in The New York Times, LA Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.