Suleika Jaouad

Suleika Jaouad is an American writer, advocate, and motivational speaker. She is the author of the "Life, Interrupted" column in The New York Times and has also written for Vogue, Glamour, NPR's All Things Considered and Women's Health. Her 2021 memoir Between Two Kingdoms was a New York Times Best Seller. When Jaouad was diagnosed with a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia in 2011, doctors said she had only a 35% chance of surviving. She survived and has written and spoken extensively about her medical experiences. Her Emmy Award-winning column, "Life, Interrupted" was part of the New York Times Well blog. In December 2021, Jaouad announced her cancer had returned and that she had undergone a second bone marrow transplant. Personal life Jaouad was born in New York City to a Muslim father from Tunisia and a Catholic mother from Switzerland. Her father Hédi taught French at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Her mother Anne was an artist. She attended the Juilliard School's pre-college program, where she studied the double bass. She attended Princeton University where she majored in Near Eastern studies and double minored in French and gender studies and graduated with highest honors in 2010 with a BA, and earned an MFA from Bennington College in writing and literature in 2020. Jaouad travels around the U.S. teaching writing and wellness workshops and she speaks at high schools, universities, hospitals, corporations, fund-raisers and professional events. Jaouad has been featured on NPR's Talk of the Nation, NBC's Weekend Today, CBS News, The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Times and Darling magazine, among others. Her TED Talk titled "What almost dying taught me about living" was released in June 2019.