Jenny Slate has learned a lot of things, but the art of survival, of self-care, has reshaped what she does

Jenny Slate was in a bad place when she began work on her new book "Little Weirds," an abstract, memoir-like collection of short pieces.

Slate, 37, had recently divorced, and was struggling with life on her own. By the end of the process, which also yielded her first stand up special, "Stage Fright," currently available on Netflix, Slate had become involved with writer and art curator Ben Shattuck, to whom she recently became engaged.

Slate, who co-created the beloved anthropomorphic mollusk Marcel the Shell, and mostly acts and does voiceover work ("Parks and Recreation," "Obvious Child," "Big