American writer Kathryn Harrison (b. 1961) was raised in the kinship care of her grandparents from the age of 6.

Harrison was born in Los Angeles, California. Her young parents divorced when Kathryn was 6 months old. At the time, Kathryn and her mother were living with the maternal grandparents and they stayed there until, when Kathyn was 6 years old, her mother left home.

The Mother Knot (2004) tells the story of Harrison’s panic when her son develops asthma. Because she had asthma when her mother left home, Harrison worries she is at fault for her son’s illness. She decides it’s time to let her mother go.