THIS IS THE DOOR: THE BODY, PAIN, AND FAITH

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 24, 2026

"It’s a blessing to live while Darcey Steinke is writing, as This Is the Door makes abundantly clear. Our era may be replete with testimony—and scientific inquiry—into the nature of pain, but no book has yet appeared on the subject with the same spiritual curiosity, lightly-worn erudition, and tender fellow-feeling as Darcey Steinke’s This Is the Door. 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, bestselling author of Bluets and The Argonauts