Suleika Jaouad is an American writer, advocate, and motivational speaker.
12 Facts About Suleika Jaouad
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Suleika Jaouad is the author of the "Life, Interrupted" column in The New York Times and has written for Vogue, Glamour, NPR's All Things Considered and Women's Health.
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Suleika Jaouad's 2021 memoir Between Two Kingdoms, covering her struggle with leukemia, was a New York Times Best Seller.
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Suleika Jaouad attended the Juilliard School's pre-college program, where she studied the double bass.
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Suleika Jaouad 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 an AB, and earned an MFA from Bennington College in writing and literature in 2020.
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Suleika 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.
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Suleika Jaouad's TED Talk titled "What almost dying taught me about living" was released in June 2019.
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The Los Angeles Times commended Suleika Jaouad's honesty, saying it's the key to the book.
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Suleika Jaouad is married to musician Jon Batiste, with whom she has been in a relationship since 2014.
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Suleika Jaouad survived and has written and spoken extensively about her medical experiences.
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In December 2021, Suleika Jaouad announced her cancer had returned and that she had undergone a second bone marrow transplant.
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In 2023, Suleika Jaouad was featured in the documentary film American Symphony, directed by Matthew Heineman, which captures her fighting the return of her cancer while her partner Jon Batiste is composing his first symphony.