Tuesday Apr 26, 2016
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
THE POWERHOUSE ARENA [Dumbo]
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY
11201
For more information, please call 718.666.3049
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Acclaimed Salon journalist reveals her personal journey with stage 4 melanoma facing almost certain death, and how, remarkably—and thanks to cutting-edge science—she was restored to health with no signs of disease.
About A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles:
Acclaimed Salon journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams’ New York Times “Modern Love” column, “A Second Embrace, With Hearts and Eyes Open,” was a stirring account of her reunion with her estranged husband, which happened just before she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in her early forties. It struck a nerve and was a viral sensation as one of the most-shared essays of 2014.
Now, in her wry, witty, and unflinching memoir: A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer, Mary Elizabeth Williams expands on her personal journey with stage 4 melanoma facing almost certain death, and how, remarkably—and thanks to cutting-edge science—she was restored to health with no signs of disease.
In the book, Williams shares how she became part of one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer treatment in decades as a bona fide guinea pig for immunotherapy, a new drug protocol that, instead of relying on the holy trinity of conventional treatment: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (known as “slash, burn, and poison”), harnesses the power contained within our own bodies to conquer cancer. This is a human account from the front lines of the disease that seamlessly weaves in the voices of experts in the field and innovative research that is changing the face of medicine.
Alongside her brilliant reporting is her moving personal experience, from the moment of her own harrowing diagnosis and how it affected her husband and young daughters, to her relationship with her best friend, who was simultaneously facing a serious ovarian cancer diagnosis—and very different results. Williams’ stark honesty and sense of humor brings readers into the emotional side of medicine, as well as the realities of illness and healing.
A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles is a powerful account of the tenacity it takes to face the disease, the extraordinary new developments that are rewriting the rules of medicine, and ultimately, the healing power of human connection.
About the Author:
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a senior staff writer for award-winning Salon.com, and her work has appeared in the New York Times and numerous other national and regional publications. She is the author of Gimme Shelter: Ugly Houses, Cruddy Neighborhoods, Fast Talking Brokers, and Toxic Mortgages: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream and she lives in New York City with her family. For forthcoming memoir, A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer will be published on April 26, 2016 by National Geographic Books.
Susannah Cahalan is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness.” She works as the books editor of the New York Post and is working on her second book, “Committed,” out 2018.
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