Q&A with
Lisa Genova
Is this your first visit to Sharjah?
Yes.
What are you hoping to gain from the visit?
I’m excited about the opportunity to connect with readers
from different cultures. I’m also honoured to participate in
this fair, to be part of a grand effort to improve awareness and
appreciation for the written word and different points of view.
You’re a neuroscientist: what made you want to write about
Alzheimer’s in your novel Still Alice?
My grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease. While I could
understand her disease as a neuroscientist, I couldn’t
understand it as a granddaughter. Everything I read was from
the perspective of an outsider—books and papers by clinicians,
scientists, social workers, and caregivers. But what did it feel
like to have this disease from my grandmother’s perspective?
She lacked the awareness and communication skills due to the
disease to answer this question.
Why is this question important? I believe empathy is the
key to compassionate awareness and staying connected. I had
great sympathy for all of us. I felt heartbroken and bad for all of
us. But I didn’t know how to feel WITH her. This is when I had
the AHA moment. Fiction is the place where we can walk in
someone else’s shoes. Story is where we can explore empathy.
It was then that I dreamed of writing a novel about a woman
with Alzheimer’s and telling it from her point of view. This was
the seed for Still Alice.
Why did you decide to self-publish Still Alice?
I never wanted to self-publish my novel. I tried going the
traditional route for almost a year. In the US, you need a
literary agent to represent you and your book, and that literary
agent then finds a publishing house to publish your book. So
I sent query letters to 100 literary agents. No one wanted to
represent it. I was left with the choice of either sticking Still
Alice in a drawer and going back to neuroscience research and
consulting, or giving my novel a chance in the world. I took a
chance and self-published it. I sold copies out of the trunk of
my car for almost a year before I found a literary agent who
then sold it to Simon & Schuster.
What was your experience of self-publishing?
It was hard work for little pay with no guarantee of success. I
wasn’t feeding my family as a self-published author. Publishing
with Simon & Schuster is a much better experience.
How was the experience of seeing your novel adapted for
the screen?
It was surreal and amazing! They did a magnificent job. I’m
forever proud of and grateful to everyone involved for creating
such a beautiful and important film.
You have explored other aspects of mental impairment
- including autism and Huntington’s Disease - in further
novels. Is fiction for you a way of promoting awareness, or of
telling a story, or both of these things?
My writing focuses on people living with neurological diseases
and disorders who tend to be ignored, feared, or misunderstood,
portrayed within a narrative that is accessible to the general public.
Most people aren’t going to read about Alzheimer’s in the Journal
of Neuroscience. But they might read a novel about a woman
with Alzheimer’s. Through fiction, I’m dedicated to describing
with passion and accuracy the journeys of those affected by
neurological diseases, thereby educating, demystifying, and
inspiring support for care and scientific research.
I think Still Alice has facilitated a global conversation about
Alzheimer’s, a disease that has long been too frightening and
has carried too much stigma to talk about. That conversation
is lifting the stigma, bringing people back into community,
raising compassionate awareness and funding for research and
resources for care.
Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude, Phi Beta
Kappa from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology, and has
a Ph. D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. Acclaimed as the
Oliver Sacks of fiction and the Michael Crichton of brain science, she
is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Still Alice, Left
Neglected, Love Anthony, and Inside the O’Briens.
Lisa’s writing focuses on people living with neurological diseases
and disorders who tend to be ignored, feared, or misunderstood,
portrayed within a narrative that is accessible to the general public.
Still Alice was adapted into a film 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.
Lisa’s 2017 TED talk, “What You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer’s,” was
seen by almost 2 million viewers in its first three months. Her fifth novel,
Every Note Played, is about ALS and will be published in early 2018.
