Explora Books has recently republished Wilma Cotten’s memoir Is the Swing High or Low? Living with Someone with Bipolar Disorder, bringing a powerful and deeply human account back into circulation for new readers. The timing aligns with Cotten’s recent participation in the Frankfurter Buchmesse, held October 15–19, 2025, where she spoke with readers, authors, and industry professionals about the book’s long journey—and the personal story at its center. The renewed attention feels fitting: this is a memoir that grows more resonant each year, especially as conversations around mental health continue to shift.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 3rd Dec 2025 – Cotten’s book does not read like a polished case study or a neatly packaged narrative. Instead, it moves with the rhythm of lived experience—messy, hopeful, exhausted, loving, and brutally honest. She recounts the life of her daughter, Alisa, whose bipolar disorder emerged early and forcefully, reshaping the entire family. In Cotten’s hands, Alisa becomes more than a diagnosis: she is a bright, restless child who raced through the world with a mix of fearlessness and fragility that no one yet understood. The early chapters linger on those memories, allowing readers to feel the slow, creeping realization that something deeper is unfolding.
When adolescence brings the formal diagnosis, Cotten’s writing sharpens. Her account of navigating psychiatrists, medications, and inconsistent support systems lays bare the emotional labor of caring for someone whose needs constantly change. Yet the memoir isn’t built on despair. It is built on effort—years of it—sometimes rewarded, often not, always exhausting.
The republished edition arrives at a moment when readers are more attuned to the realities Cotten describes. Her story moves from mental illness to self-medication, addiction, and repeated attempts at treatment, all written with the clarity of someone who refuses to sanitize the truth. Cotten’s perspective as a mother—one who overextended herself financially, emotionally, and spiritually—gives the book its gravity. Her guilt, her fierce love, and her persistent hope run like a current beneath every chapter.
The later sections, which detail the events surrounding Alisa’s murder and the ensuing legal trials, are written with restraint. Cotten avoids sensationalism; instead, she focuses on endurance, on the unimaginable task of living forward. Her appearance at the Frankfurter Buchmesse underscored this theme: she spoke not only about the tragedy, but about the healing that writing made possible.
With this republication, Explora Books extends Cotten’s mission—to humanize mental illness, to challenge stigma, and to offer connection to anyone facing a similar path. Is the Swing High or Low? is now available through major bookstores and online retailers for readers who want to engage with this moving, unflinching memoir.
About Explora Books
Explora Books is a Vancouver-based firm helping authors break through the noise of the self-publishing world. Our mission is pushing the boundaries of creativity in amplifying your story globally. Creativity reimagined. Using focused research and strategic marketing, we give writers clear paths to visibility and measurable growth. Our team simplifies each stage of self-publishing with practical guidance and reliable support. Committed to innovation and high standards, Explora Books works to give authors a real chance to be seen, heard, and published on their own terms.
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