Dear Scarlet book cover featuring my comic avatar sleeping in bed of red apples

Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression

In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postpartum depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from PPD and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss.

→ Longlisted for Canada Reads 2020
→ Finalist for the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize

CANADA
Amazon.ca | Indigo | Arsenal Pulp Press

U.S.
Amazon.com | Bookshop.org

International editions
French | Korean | Chinese

  • “Her thin, quavering line art telegraphs the main ideas with speed and force. And Wong is a clever writer, injecting humor into her often grave account…”

    The New York Times

  • “To name and acknowledge depression is already a gift. But within these pages, too, lie both a visual guide and a map...”

    The Paris Review

  • “This raw but reassuring memoir filled with helpful suggestions to mothers struggling with similar situations and feelings is sure to resonate with many new parents.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • “This book is so important — it’s like a friend reaching through the darkness and telling your own story back to you. It’s universal and heartbreaking and so, so reassuring.”

    Lucy Knisley, author of Kid Gloves

  • “Full to bursting with sadness, insight and hope.”

    Tom Hart, author of The Art of the Graphic Memoir

  • “Teresa Wong’s spare, lovely exploration of postpartum depression is compassionate and direct in all the right ways and, most importantly, locates the thread of joy that runs through a life — even if, in our most despairing hours or days or weeks, it seems as though it’s been lost to us forever.”

    Emily Flake, author of Mama Tried

  • “In a society where women’s stories of childbirth and early motherhood are expected to be either fairy tales or else not told at all, Dear Scarlet is an act of bravery.”

    Sarah Glidden, author of Rolling Blackouts

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