Mud Flower: Surviving Schizophrenia and Suicide Through Art shows the perspective of a person who has a serious mental illness, who survives extreme treatments, who both family and the health system have given up on, but who defies all expectations and common beliefs of what is possible.Along the way, the author describes the role of art in her survival, grappling with how the life force can be either nurtured or destroyed by elements in our environment, such as nature, beauty, and art versus dehumanization and coercion.Mud Flower: Surviving Schizophrenia and Suicide Through Art has won numerous book awards including the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, the Literary Titan Award, the Firebird Award, International Book Awards Finalist, and First Place of the Book Fest Award.