Terry Gross

When she got to the ICU, he was hanging on to his life.

His face was so disfigured from the wounds, the stab that blinded him, and the swelling that she refused to allow him to look in a mirror.

Griffith's new memoir, The Flower Bearers, covers this period as well as her childhood, which pretty much ended when she was 11 or 12 and her mother was diagnosed with kidney disease.

She also writes about her relationship with Aisha and how they initially connected over being black female poets, trying to find their voices as writers and a place in the literary world.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is also the author of the novel Promise and several poetry collections, including Seeing the Body.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, welcome to Fresh Air.

I really like your book a lot.

Thank you so much, Terri.

And I'm going to call you Eliza from here on in because that's how you prefer to be called.

So let's start with your wedding day, which you describe as both the best and worst day of your life.

Best because you were getting married to a man you really loved and who loved you too.

And worst because of your dearest friend's disappearance and death.

How far were you into the wedding when you found out that she was dead?

You have dissociative identity disorder, and that kind of kicked in on your wedding day.

Could you describe what that is, what the disorder is?

But just to be more specific, you actually have alter egos that kick in, like versions of yourself at different ages.

Could you just describe that a little bit so we understand a little bit better what you go through?

Let's get back to your wedding day.

Did your alters show up that day?

I interviewed your husband, Salman Rushdie, after his memoir, Knife, was published.