Lisa Genova's Headshot

Lisa Genova

Neuroscientist, Author of "Still Alice" - Panelist Blurb

Lisa Genova is a Harvard-trained neuroscientist and the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, and Inside the O'Briens. Her storytelling often has neuroscience at its core, so Genova can "illuminate stories and show people a view of a certain kind of world that they normally don't have access to."

Genova's first novel, Still Alice, spent 57 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. There are over 2.1 million copies in print, and it has been translated into 31 languages. It has received many awards, including the 2008 Bronte Prize and the 2011 Bexley Book of the Year, and is now a film from Sony Pictures Classics starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish. Julianne Moore won the 2015 Best Actress Oscar for her role as Alice Howland.

Left Neglected, also a New York Times bestseller, was the #1 Indie Next Pick for January 2011, the Borders "Book You'll Love" for January 2011, and the #4 Indie Reading Group Pick for summer 2011. Left Neglected was chosen by the Richard and Judy book club in the UK.

Lisa's third New York Times bestselling novel, Love Anthony was an October 2012 Indie Next pick and a People Magazine Great Read. USA Today calls it "beautifully written and poignant to the point of heartbreak."

Lisa's fourth novel, Inside The O'Briens, about a family living with Huntington's Disease, was published April 7, 2015. An Indie Next Pick and an instant bestseller in its first week, it became the #1 hardcover fiction title in Canada and #12 on the New York Times bestseller list. "An unsparing, heart-piercing portrait...compelling...enlightening." -Washington Post. "A gut-wrenching and memorable read." -Library Journal, starred review.

Speaking about the neurological diseases and disorders she writes about, Lisa has appeared on The Today Show, Dr. Oz, The Diane Rehm Show, CNN, Chronicle, Fox News, and Canada AM and was featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary film, To Not Fade Away. The National Alzheimer's Association awarded her with the Sargent and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award in March 2015. She was awarded the 2015 Pell Center Prize in recognition of "a contemporary storyteller whose work has had a significant impact on the public dialogue."

In her own words, Genova says: "The novels I write are about people living with neurological diseases and conditions that are feared, ignored, or misunderstood, portrayed within a story that is accessible to the general public. When we simply learn the science and statistics—every 68 seconds someone in the US is diagnosed with Alzheimer's; 1 in 88 children in the US have autism—it's staggering, but the information tends to stay intellectual, in our heads. Novels reveal the humanity behind these numbers. Stories are a way into people's hearts, and when this happens, we have more than knowledge. We have real understanding, empathy, sensitivity, the ability to be better caregivers, and maybe the motivation to get involved."