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Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Journalism Professor and Author

Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media, where she teaches writing and reporting courses specializing in long-form feature writing and creative nonfiction. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College and previously served as managing editor of Poynter.org and executive director of Images & Voices of Hope (ivoh), where she developed the internationally recognized "Restorative Narrative" storytelling genre. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Harvard University's Nieman Storyboard.

Mallary is the author of "Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery" (Published by Simon & Schuster, August 2025), a groundbreaking blend of memoir and immersive reporting that chronicles her personal journey with anorexia nervosa while introducing the concept of the "middle place" in recovery. Supported by an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant, the book has been praised for its accessible and realistic approach to understanding the complexities of eating disorder recovery. She maintains a weekly newsletter called "Write at the Edge" and continues working as adjunct faculty for The Poynter Institute, leading writing trainings for journalists worldwide.

Buy The Book Here 👉🏽

Written by journalist and professor at the University of Texas-Austin Mallary Tenore Tarpley, Slip offers a groundbreaking framework for understanding eating disorder recovery and interweaves poignant personal stories, immersive reporting, and cutting-edge science.

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.

S2-E147 - The Journey Of Recovery - With Mallary Tenore Tarpley

In this episode of Champion Mindset Collective, Anthony Dahya speaks with Mallary Tenore Tarpley, journalism professor and author of the forthcoming memoir Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery. Mallary shares her powerful story — from losing her mother to cancer at age 11, to developing anorexia nervosa as a teenager, to spending years caught in cycles of binge eating and restriction.

As she explains: “It wasn’t until my late twenties that I began to re-frame my thinking: What if slips weren’t failures, but growth opportunities?” This is a conversation about resilience, healing, and what it truly means to live in “the middle” of recovery.

✨ Key Episode Highlights & Takeaways

👉🏽 Grief and perfectionism: “When my mother passed away, I thought grief was something you were supposed to get over in a day. So I went to school the very next day and even read her eulogy without crying.”

👉🏽 How eating disorders can begin: Mallary recalls trying to “stop time” by staying the same size she was when her mom was alive.

👉🏽 The hidden struggles: “For over a decade, I was caught in a cycle of binge eating and restricting — all while telling everyone I was fully recovered.”

👉🏽 Re-framing recovery: Shifting from shame to growth — “Recovery is a middle place… where slips happen, but progress is always possible.”

👉🏽 Hope in imperfection: Why it’s okay to be in process and not at a “perfect” endpoint.

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