Available as Hardback, eBook
26 February 2026
Darcey Steinke - the author beloved by Olivia Laing and Maggie Nelson - examines the experience of pain, organ by organ, both in her own body and in literature, for those in pain and those who love them
In This Is the Door, acclaimed author Darcey Steinke explores the agony and ecstasy of pain in its many forms. She takes readers through the archives and across oceans; she walks the tightrope between suffering and rapture, explores her own pain and that of a multitude of creatives characters from Frida Kahlo to Kurt Cobain.
Her journey reveals a series of questions. Does pain educate? Is pain always a physical experience of negation? How does pain push us to another level of creativity? What can we learn from wounding, from winnowing, from the stillness, the de-creation that intense pain brings? Whether it is the physical pain of an injury or illness, or the mental pain of heartache or loneliness, pain is an experience shared by all of us.
This Is the Door is a celebration of what the body can endure, and what it can achieve.
“It’s a blessing to live while Darcey Steinke is writing, as This Is the Door makes abundantly clear. Kurt Cobain, Audre Lorde, Nietzsche, Simone Weil, the author’s father - all are here, along with many more, in a tapestry that makes the reader feel less alone in embodied life, here rendered as both excruciating and holy”
Maggie Nelson
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”This Is the Door is a work of piercing grace, philosophical wisdom and rare emotional power. By tracing the history of her own body and spirit, as well as studying the suffering of others, Steinke shows us how physical pain and spiritual faith inform and influence each other. This is a work of art that could only have emerged from the crucible of truth. It’s absolutely beautiful”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“Part philosophical meditation, part personal history, This Is the Door is a riveting exploration of what it means to be a body in and out of pain. In this eloquent and wide-ranging book, Steinke illuminates the darkest, most private corners of human experience with enormous generosity and grace”
Jenny Offill
“There are not many authors I want to read on this subject but Darcey Steinke is absolutely one of them because of the clarity of her voice. There’s a ferocity to her way of metabolising the world around her that I find so compelling”
Octavia Bright
“The most honest, searching and profound meditation I have read in quite some time on what it means to live in a body. Darcey Steinke writes with courage, humility and vulnerability. What a precious book this is”
Lauren Elkin
Darcey Steinke
Darcey Steinke is the author of multiple works of non-fiction and novels, including her most recent memoir, Flash Count Diary. Her books have been translated into ten languages and her nonfiction has appeared widely, including in the Times, New York Times and Paris Review. She has taught at Columbia University, New York University and the American University of Paris. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.
@steinkedarcey | darceysteinke.com | darceysteinke.substack