Jessica Guerrieri — novelist, UC Davis alumna, mother of three, and fearless voice for recovery — turned her hardest years into a debut that the whole town can be proud of.
Some writers chase a story. Jessica Guerrieri lived one, survived it, and then had the courage to put it on the page for the rest of us. A UC Davis graduate, a mother of three young daughters, and a Davis resident who came to town by way of the Bay Area, Jessica is the kind of neighbor you might pass at the farmers market without realizing you are standing next to a nationally published novelist — and one of the most generous voices in the recovery community you will ever encounter.
A Debut That Started in Davis
Jessica's first novel, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Harper Muse, 2025), did not arrive quietly. Written during the isolation of the pandemic and shaped over years of revision and, by her own account, hundreds of rejections, the book went on to win the Maurice Prize for Fiction from her alma mater, UC Davis — and then launched a national book tour that, fittingly, began right here at home. The kickoff took place at the Veterans Memorial Theatre in partnership with The Avid Reader, our beloved downtown bookstore, with Jessica in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin. For a writer who once wondered whether her words would ever reach a shelf, it was, in her words, a full-circle moment.
The Story Underneath the Story
The novel follows Leah, a mother at a crossroads, and examines with unflinching honesty the link between motherhood and alcoholism — a frank rebuttal to the "wine mom" culture that treats a coping mechanism as a punchline. Critics have placed Jessica's writing in the company of Celeste Ng, Liane Moriarty, and Ann Napolitano: literary women's fiction that reads like a beach novel and lands like a gut punch. It is a book about losing yourself while trying to hold everyone else together, and about the long, brave road back.
What makes Jessica a true Davis luminary is not only the accolades, though there are many. It is that she chose, publicly and repeatedly, to be honest. With nearly twelve years of continuous sobriety, she has become a fierce and visible advocate for addiction recovery — writing essays for outlets including HuffPost, Romper, Scary Mommy, and Motherly, and turning her own experience into a lifeline for readers who may be quietly carrying the same weight.
What Comes Next
Jessica's debut is the first in a two-book deal, and the next is already on the way: Both Can Be True, a story of two estranged sisters pulled back together when a local mother goes missing, set against a quiet Northern California mountain town. If the first book announced a new voice, the second confirms it — proof that Davis is not just home to a one-time success, but to a writer with a long and luminous career ahead of her.
Davis is a town of readers, students, and parents — exactly the audience Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was written for. It takes a subject that polite conversation tends to smooth over and treats it with honesty and compassion instead. For a community that prides itself on looking out for its own, Jessica's book is a quiet act of care: it tells someone, somewhere on this very grid of bike lanes and front porches, that they are not the only one.
Plenty of people get well in private. Jessica decided to do it out loud. During the pandemic she went public about being in recovery, trading shame for solidarity at a moment when the whole world suddenly understood isolation. Through essays and a steady, honest presence online, she has built a following that is less a fan base than a support network — readers who found her words exactly when they needed them.
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| Debut Novel | 2025 · Harper Muse |
| Major Prize | UC Davis Maurice Prize |
| Book Deal | Two books, one publisher |
| Sobriety | Nearly 12 years & counting |
| Daughters | Three |
| Launch Home | Davis · The Avid Reader |
Davis has always punched above its weight when it comes to talent, but every so often someone reminds us exactly what that means. Jessica Guerrieri is a writer who could have launched her career anywhere and chose to begin it here, on a stage a few blocks from a bookstore we all love. She has turned the most private kind of struggle into the most public kind of generosity. Davis is proud to claim her — and prouder still to read her.