Date: April 10, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Dean Ballroom, Sheraton Downtown
Andrew Solomon is a writer of remarkable talent and intellect. In his books and essays he explores the subjects of politics, culture, and psychology with extraordinary humanity. His latest work, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity, received the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. With narrative grace and unparalleled empathy, it explores the lives of families that accommodate children with physical, mental, and social disabilities and how these challenges can broaden one’s capacity for love. Andrew spent ten years researching the book, interviewing more than 300 families and generating more than 40,000 pages of notes!
The New York Times chose Far From the Tree as one of the Ten Best Books of 2012, praising it as “a book everyone should read... there’s no one who wouldn’t be a more imaginative and understanding parent — or human being — for having done so... a wise and beautiful book.” President Bill Clinton called the book “remarkable” and it continues to garner acclaim and receive numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and Yale
University’s Research Advocacy Award.
In 2001, Andrew received the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. The book was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and was a world-wide bestseller published in more than twenty languages. The NewYorkTimes described The Noonday Demon as“All-encompassing,brave, deeply humane...a book of remarkable depth, breadth and vitality...open- minded, critically informed and poetic all at the same time...fearless and full of compassion.”
A regular contributor to NPR,The NewYorkTimes and many other publica- tions,Andrew has lectured on an extensive range of topics at Harvard,Yale, and MIT and is a frequent lecturer in Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College. He graduated from the prestigious Horace Mann School in New York City cum laude and from Yale University magna cum laude. He holds a PhD in Psychology from Jesus College in Cambridge where he also received the top first-class degree, the only foreign student to ever be so-honored.
Beyond his writing Andrew is an outspoken activist and philanthropist for many causes in LGBT rights, mental health, education and the arts. He is founder of the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT Studies at Yale University and serves on the board of directors for many national organiza- tions.
He lives with his husband and young son in New York and London.
Sponsored by UI Carver College of Medicine