Suleika Jaouad
Author of Between Two Kingdoms, Artist, Cancer Survivor, Activist
Suleika Jaouad (pronounced Su-lake-uh Ja-wad) is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, artist, and advocate. She documented her odyssey of illness, healing, and self-discovery in the instant New York Times bestselling memoir Between Two Kingdoms, which has been translated into over twenty languages. After a leukemia diagnosis cut short Jaouad’s career aspirations as a foreign correspondent, at age 22, she began writing her widely read New York Times column and video series “Life, Interrupted” from the front lines of her hospital bed. Since then, she has become an inspiring guide for those living with illness and navigating life’s many interruptions.
Jaouad is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a weekly newsletter that was founded at the beginning of the pandemic to help people transform life’s interruptions into creative grist and community; it has over 160,000 subscribers from 200 countries around the world and is one of the most popular publications on Substack. She began painting at age 33, when medication to treat a leukemia relapse temporarily impaired her vision, making writing a challenge. Her first art exhibit is forthcoming at ArtYard in June 2024. Along with her husband, the musician Jon Batiste, she is the subject of the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary, American Symphony, which is a portrait of two artists during a year of extreme highs and lows and a meditation on art, love, and the creative process. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Vogue, among others.
Born in New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Jaouad attended The Juilliard School's pre-college program for the double bass. She earned her BA in Near Eastern studies with highest honors from Princeton University and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.
A vocal advocate for prison and healthcare reform, Jaouad has served on Barack Obama’s Presidential Cancer Panel and was the recipient of the inaugural Inspire Award from NMDP (formerly Be the Match) for her work to expand and diversify the national bone marrow registry.
To receive her free weekly newsletter, subscribe here. To learn more about becoming a bone marrow donor, join the symphony.
Jaouad is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a weekly newsletter that was founded at the beginning of the pandemic to help people transform life’s interruptions into creative grist and community; it has over 160,000 subscribers from 200 countries around the world and is one of the most popular publications on Substack. She began painting at age 33, when medication to treat a leukemia relapse temporarily impaired her vision, making writing a challenge. Her first art exhibit is forthcoming at ArtYard in June 2024. Along with her husband, the musician Jon Batiste, she is the subject of the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary, American Symphony, which is a portrait of two artists during a year of extreme highs and lows and a meditation on art, love, and the creative process. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Vogue, among others.
Born in New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Jaouad attended The Juilliard School's pre-college program for the double bass. She earned her BA in Near Eastern studies with highest honors from Princeton University and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.
A vocal advocate for prison and healthcare reform, Jaouad has served on Barack Obama’s Presidential Cancer Panel and was the recipient of the inaugural Inspire Award from NMDP (formerly Be the Match) for her work to expand and diversify the national bone marrow registry.
To receive her free weekly newsletter, subscribe here. To learn more about becoming a bone marrow donor, join the symphony.
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