Topic: “Still Alice: Understanding Early Alzheimer’s“
Introduction/Moderator:
TBD/Patty Satalia
Location: The Penn Stater, President’s Hall
Bio: Dr. Lisa Genova is the author of The New York Times best-selling novels Still Alice and Left Neglected. Genova’s debut is an undeniably poignant story about a lesser known form of Alzheimer’s Disease–the early-onset form that affects people is their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Powerful and compelling, the book has been hailed as “moving and haunting,” “a work of pure genius,” “insightful, tragic, inspirational” and “Heartbreakingly real.” Her latest work, Left Neglected has received immense praise from the press and esteemed authors such as Jodi Picoult, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Brunonia Barry.
As both a trained neuroscientist and a woman who watched her grandmother suffer through Alzheimer’s, Genova deftly marries science and compassion within Still Alice as her protagonist, 50-year-old Alice Howland, unravels at the hands of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. The novel begins with Alice in the prime of her life–she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned linguistics expert with an equally successful husband and three grown children. But the disease takes hold swiftly, and we cannot help but read on to watch it change Alice’s relationship with her family and the world –forever. A remarkable celebration of life, love, family, and the intricacies of the human mind, Still Alice will spark private thoughts, public conversations and hopefully raise awareness of this debilitating disease.
Still Alice received critical acclaim, including the 2008 Bronte Prize and was a finalist in the general fiction category of the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. It was a winter 2009 Barnes and Noble Discover Pick; a Jan. 2009 Indie Next Pick; and a Feb. 2009 pick in both the Borders and Target book clubs.
An instant best-seller, Left Neglected also makes use of Genova’s background as a neuroscientist as it tells the story of a woman who suffers severe brain trauma that completely erases the left side of her world. As she struggles to recover, she discovers she must embrace a simpler life, and in doing so begins to heal the things in she’s left neglected in herself, her family, and the world around her.
Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She has done research on the molecular etiology of depression, Parkinson’s Disease, drug addiction, and memory loss following stroke. She is a proud and active member of the Dementia Advocacy & Support Network International and DementiaUSA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s Association. She spends a considerable amount of time acting on stage in Boston and in local independent films.
Genova lives with her family in Cape Cod, MA.