Writer &
relentless advocate

Ashley Bristowe is the author of My Own Blood, a furious, tender memoir about motherhood, disability, abandonment, and what happens when you refuse to disappear.

She has spent decades living in the space between vulnerability and rage: raising her sons, navigating a medical and political system that prefers silence, and telling the stories most people would rather look away from.

My Own Blood

A memoir for anyone who has ever loved a child and felt utterly alone.

My Own Blood is not the inspirational disability memoir people expect.

It is honest and unsparing. A book about motherhood, medical systems, abandonment, love, and the parts of life most people don’t want to witness, much less talk about… though so many people do live in these worlds.  

“I wrote it to tell the truth about raising a disabled child in a society that prefers mothers like me to be grateful, quiet, and unseen. I couldn't be quiet, so I chose to be loud. My radical act was to keep showing up." 

This book is for you if you’ve ever lived inside the collision of heartbreak and rage. If you’ve watched people retreat and disappear just when you needed them most. If you’ve ever loved someone so fiercely it remade you. 

You may not feel better after reading it. But you will absolutely feel seen.

Penguin Random House Profile

“Rise, mothers, and don’t stop yelling that you are here.”

A. Bristowe, Globe & Mail, April 2021

  • “Written with spare, feisty, sparkling prose, My Own Blood places the reader squarely inside a human experience few could imagine but many must endure– raising a special-needs child amidst a society far less caring than we pretend to ourselves. A gripping and defiant memoir of parental commitment, distress, struggle, and vindication.”

    Gabor Maté, author of When the Body Says No, and The Myth of Normal

  • “My Own Blood” is like the clearest window pane, through which we have the privilege to observe, absorb, the extraordinary journey of love between a mother and her very special child, and also view the price she, and all of us, pay for freedom, perseverance, hope, and fulfillment. A stunner of a memoir in which each sentence either sings or stings.”

    Deepa Mehta, Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Water

  • “Most books about raising children with serious disabilities aim for optimism, and sound exactly alike. But once in a while, a gifted writer produces a brutally honest and utterly readable account of that dark, detailed, furious, unseen world, after which you can’t see ordinary life the same way again. It’s a rare gift, but Ashley Bristowe’s My Own Blood is that kind of book. You need you read it, as soon as possible.”

    Ian Brown, journalist and author of The Boy in the Moon

  • “I was completely swept away by Ashley Bristowe’s book. I don’t think I will ever forget my encounter with her frankness, her devotion, her lostness, her immersion in the extremes of life, or her propulsive and urgent writing.”

    –Sheila Heti, Giller-nominated author of Motherhood, and Pure Colour

  • “This memoir is as unputdownable as the best thriller. Really, I was awake until 3 a.m. reading this true story of a sharp-witted, foul-mouthed mother losing her mind as she saves (and utterly transforms) her severely disabled son’s life. Ashley Bristowe meets our collective silence about disability head-on and speaks, cries, sings, and laughs in its (our) face. This is not a tidy depiction of singular heroism. It’s shockingly real, painful, hilarious, and, at times, terrifying. Over and over again, she shows how we, too, each of us, can and must summon the political will and the moral courage to respect, to love, and to share our power with the most vulnerable people among us. An extraordinary testament to human connection. And swearing.”

    Karen Connelly, Governor General’s Award-winning author of Touch the Dragon, and The Change Room

  • “My Own Blood is a look-you-in-the-eye conversation about motherhood– the glory and the wretchedness. Ashley Bristowe tells her remarkable story with ferocious candour and hard-won insights into how we regard disability and parents who grapple with its challenges. A wonderful book, just bursting at the seams with bravery, honesty, and heart. My own heart beat faster as I read it.”

    Gillian Deacon, broadcaster and author, and host of the podcast, “A Love Affair With the Unknown”

Buy the Book

Indigo
Audible- voiced by author
McNally Robinson
Indie Bookstores
buying in the uk
buying in the usa

Media & Interviews

Ashley speaks and writes about the realities of motherhood, disability, policy, community, and the quiet violence of being left to navigate it alone.

These interviews tend to be equal parts rage, clarity, compassion, and unusual candour.

CBC Radio — The Current

Interview with Matt Galloway

Read interview transcript

The Globe & Mail

Rise, mothers, and don’t stop yelling that you are here.

Globe Opinion piece, May 8, 2021

Read Article

Ottawa International Writers Festival

In conversation with Julie Lalonde, fellow feminist killjoy, activist,
and bestselling author of Resilience Is Futile

Watch Interview

CTV Calgary

Local lunchtime interview

Telus Talks with Tamara Taggart

A thoughtful, 40-minute conversation between two mothers raising disabled children. Insightful, compassionate, and resonant.

Watch Interview

More Media

Today's Parent
Alberta views
The Social
Good Reads

Speaking, Book clubs, & Workshops

Ashley is often invited to speak about:

  • Writing from rage as powerful, inconvenient truth-telling

  • Mothering a disabled child in a world that prefers invisibility

  • Disability policy, income supports, and systemic abandonment

  • Radical hospitality, building authentic community, and reciprocal care

  • Fundraising, development, and moving money where it matters

book whatsername for your book club, for keynotes, or to build a workshop together

Our Work Beyond the Book

Bristowe’s work has always lived in more than one lane. She also builds community, raises money for meaningful projects, advocates for systemic change, and is working to build the world her sons deserve. 

A FEW OF OUR OTHER PROJECTS:

  • Our son Alexander is at the centre of how we run everything we do. This Fund supports the therapies and opportunities the system either can’t or won’t provide, and which we cannot afford ourselves. The mandate of Alexander’s Fund is centred on the belief that disabled children deserve community, dignity, respect, and endless opportunities to reach their highest potential. The Fund is overseen by a Board of Directors and rests inside The Charitable Foundation For the Family, which provides a charitable tax receipt for all donations.

    Many friends donate a small amount monthly, which adds up to make a significant impact on Alexander’s lived experiences and opportunities (click this link, and use the drop-down box to scroll down to “The Alexander Fund” to apply your donation to Al). You can also speak with the Foundation For The Family about leaving a bequest for Alexander in your will (known as “planned giving”), which will be held in trust by the Foundation. 

  • The long-term radical hospitality community we are building just outside Antigonish, Nova Scotia — a place where disabled adults, authentically genuine souls, caregivers, and families can rest, gather, and belong. Ground has been broken and Phase I is underway, deeply connected to the life we’re building for our children’s futures.

    Interested in hearing more or getting involved? Be in touch. Fortress In The Vale on IG, here.

  • For more than two decades, I’ve worked in global development, writing and editing policy and grants, designing and running training programs, and helping move money toward projects that actually matter. In 2023 I was lead writer on a successful $100M proposal for biodiversity conservation in southern Africa, approved by the US Congress.

    I also do small projects (sometimes gratis) when projects and people super-align with my values. Be in touch. 

  • My husband is the award-winning writer and journalist Chris Turner, whose work intersects with mine in all kinds of ways— politically, personally, creatively. He’s had a website in the past, but we don’t have the bandwidth to maintain one rn. 

    If you need to contact him and can’t find another way, don’t be shy, lots of ppl (including fancy journalists who probably have his number scribbled down somewhere but can’t find it atm) do it through me. Use the contact form on this webpage and just tell me what you want, I’ll let him know.

    Follow Turner on BlueSky: @theturner.bsky.social.

Be in touch

If you’d like to chat– about the book, speaking, consulting, or because something in my work found you, I’m here. I read my own messages, and I do my best to respond when I can.

Representation: Ashley’s literary agent is Hillary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists.