The Trimesters of Grief
or Are You Gonna Listen to What Is Going on in Here?

Name: The Trimesters of Grief
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Katie Rizzo
ISBN: 9798228843776

Author: Katie Rizzo, Colin Campell

Narrator: Erica Sullivan

Unabridged: TBD

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 12/28/2026

Categories: Nonfiction, Self-help, Grief & Loss, Psychology

Synopsis

there are
over eight billion people
on earth
and none of
them are you.How does someone survive the unsurvivable?In 2024, 80,000 people in the US lost their lives to overdose. It is estimated that 48.5 million people in the US are currently struggling with addiction. Many families of those with addiction hide in the shadows. But they don’t have to.When Katie Rizzo’s life was turned upside down by the death of her oldest son from opioid addiction, as a scientist and writer she fell back on what she knew: documenting, looking for patterns, and poetry. In The Trimesters of Grief, Rizzo shows how grief mirrors pregnancy, from whole-body fatigue to brain fog to the need to tell everyone about this precious life-a life that is now gone. And then it is time to “deliver” grief and let it sit beside us.Part memoir and part self-help book, The Trimesters of Grief suggests ways to communicate and nurture grief. Other cultures embrace grief as a natural part of life; perhaps it’s time for us to also learn to hold life in one hand and grief in the other.

About Katie Rizzo

Katie Rizzo holds two masters: one from Yale University and another from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. For the last fifteen years, Katie Rizzo taught Anatomy and Biology at her local community college and public high school. Her short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies. Katie helps numerous grief groups and is a grief writing facilitator through Love In The Trenches, a support group for those who have lost a child to addiction. She speaks frequently on grief and loss. Her upcoming short film, Liminal Friend, is in production for fall, 2026 film festivals.

About Erica Sullivan

Erica Sullivan is a professional actress of both stage and screen and holds her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She has spent over a decade as a Company Member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She has been busy in both the stage and screen world, and has also narrated nearly one hundred audiobooks.

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Quotes

“I am moved by this book…The words, resilience and truth are powerful. Nicholas’s life experiences mirror so many others in the world. Many feel isolated and alone, and this book will make them feel seen in a deeply powerful and human way.”

“As both a grieving mother and a grief coach, I’ve long thought of Beautiful Boy as a touchstone for families living with addiction—but it is also a story of survival. Katie’s book is the one we’ve been missing for the age of opioids and fentanyl: a mother’s story that does not have the same ending, told with ferocious honesty and an eye for what might actually help the rest of us keep breathing. Her ‘trimesters of grief’ framework gave me language for what my body and mind were already doing after loss. This is the book I wish I could hand to every parent who has just gotten the call; it stands beside Beautiful Boy as its necessary, devastating counterpart.”

“She is a courageous truth-teller. Her story of living through and walking with grief is powerful. She is modeling authenticity and honoring her son’s life and experience for others in a powerful way.”

“What makes her message especially moving is her discovery of poetry as a form of connection—an unexpected language that allowed her to stay close to love, even in the midst of absence. Honest, reflective, and quietly courageous, her insights invite listeners to see grief not as something to overcome, but as something to sit with, understand, and gently carry as it transforms over time.”

“Katie cuts straight through the societal stigma surrounding addiction in high-achieving households to deliver a raw, unvarnished look at a parent’s worst nightmare. She speaks with a rare, poetic clarity about sudden loss, grief, and the brutal limits of parental control. Katie is articulate, deeply composed, and brings the exact kind of heavy, authentic substance that forces an audience to stop and listen.”

“Her advice was practical and logical and the way she describes grief is unique and I certainly could resonate with her ideas. I know her work will be enjoyed by so many!”

“A heartbreaking memoir that provides guidance for those in the throes of grief.”