Jen Murphy Parker is a writer based in San Francisco where she lives with her husband and four kids. Her writing explores what exists in the middle of parenting, of health, of life.
Fourteen years into raising a child with severe epilepsy, Jen is always looking for the both-ness: the many ways we end up the sum of our best luck and worst experiences. Her work has appeared in Oprah Daily, sheknows, Hobart, Heimat Review, Cleaver Magazine, among others. Subscribe to her Substack Painting the Golden Gate here.
Her memoir Fault Line Boy: A Mother’s Reckoning with Epilepsy publishes on 11/17. Pre-order here.
Praise for Fault Line Boy
“Fault Line Boy is for everyone for whom parenthood—nay, life—hasn’t gone as expected…This book is a love letter to differences and what it means to be human…[It’s] the hope we all need right now.”
—Jennifer Pastiloff, New York Times best-selling author of Proof of Life
“This is a story about holding on, told beautifully with warmth, wit and a fierce tenderness. It’s a book you won’t so much finish as carry with you.”
—JJ Ramberg, former MSNBC anchor and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of It’s Your Business
“Fault Line Boy is moving, fast-moving and profoundly powerful. Parker’s gorgeous writing—infused with wisdom, warmth and grace—bursts off the page. Laughter and hope where you least expect it. A flat-out superb memoir. And fair warning: You’re about to fall in love with a boy named Lew.”
—Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps and New York Times best-selling author of Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work
“Fault Line Boy is an unforgettable story of what it’s like for motherhood to not turn out exactly as expected…Parker writes with honesty, humor and grace.”
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else
Writing
Oprah Daily, “The Unexpected Joy of Raising a Son Who Will Always Live at Home”
sheknows, “The Unshakeable Happiness of My ‘Least Happy’ Child”
Cleaver Magazine, “How a Boy Could Be”
Heimat Review, “The Least Happy Child”
Hobart, “The Streak”
Medium, “The Fun and Games of College Tours”
Substack, once admired by Callie Garnett at Bloomsbury for its “shrewd, palliative voice and thoughtful approach to the big questions found in life’s smallest moments.”