ADVISORY/Awakenings Doctor-Author Oliver Sacks to Speak at Koret Jewish Book Awards Ceremony March 29.Entertainment Editors/Publishing Writers ADVISORY...for Monday (March 29th) --(BUSINESS WIRE) Doctor-turned-award-winning-author Oliver Sacks, whose best-selling book, Awakenings, inspired an Oscar-nominated film starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, will discuss how scientific themes influence contemporary fiction at the Koret Jewish Book Awards ceremony and reception at the Harvard Club in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. on Monday, March 29 at 5:30 p.m. Most of Dr. Sacks' work is based on clinical case studies of how individuals survive and adapt to different neurological diseases, and what their experience reveals about the human mind. His first best-seller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, describes patients struggling to live with conditions ranging from Tourette's syndrome Tou·rette's syndrome or Tou·rette syndrome n. A severe neurological disorder characterized by multiple facial and other body tics, usually beginning in childhood or adolescence and often accompanied by grunts and compulsive utterances, as of to autism autism (ô`tĭzəm), developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain. It is characterized by the abnormal development of communication skills, social skills, and reasoning. , phantom limb syndrome phantom limb syndrome Chronic intense pain localized to the site of an amputated or denervated limb; 60-70% of amputees have a PL sensation; 10-15% have PLS; the pain often reflects the amount of pre-amputation pain, and is often refractory to excision of and Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (ăls`hī'mərz, ôls–), degenerative disease of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex that leads to atrophy of the brain and senile dementia. . His anecdotal approach -- making patients the heroes of his case studies -- effectively magnifies the personal note from the margins of medicine to the forefront. Arguably, the nation's preeminent medical ethicist eth·i·cist also e·thi·cian n. A specialist in ethics. Noun 1. ethicist - a philosopher who specializes in ethics ethician philosopher - a specialist in philosophy , Dr. Sacks' perspective is influenced -- sometimes explicitly so -- by his Jewish experience, education and interests. He discusses his Jewish upbringing in his recent memoir, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, "among the finest evocations of a contemporary Jewish childhood in recent memory," said Koret Jewish Book Awards Chairman Prof. Steven Zipperstein, Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and History, and Co-Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University. "Since a primary aim of the Koret prize is to track new, important trends in writing, Dr. Sacks is likely to offer an especially useful perspective on the influence of scientific themes in recent fiction and theater," Zipperstein said. Dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine" by the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, Dr. Sacks' work has been translated into 21 languages, earning him a worldwide readership and numerous awards, including Rockefeller University's Lewis Thomas Prize The Lewis Thomas Prize, named for its first recipient, Lewis Thomas, is an annual literary prize awarded by Rockefeller University to scientists deemed to have accomplished a significant literary achievement. The award was established in 1993 and is endowed with a $5,000 USD accolade. , given to scientists who have attained significant achievement in literature. Each spring since 1999 the San Francisco-based Koret Foundation has presented Jewish book awards of $10,000 in each of four categories: Biography, Autobiography and Literary studies; Fiction; History; and Philosophy and Thought. Last year, Koret introduced a Young Writer on Jewish Themes Award for a writer under the age of 35. Winner Mark Oppenheimer received a $25,000 prize and a quarter-long residency teaching at Stanford University. Past Koret Jewish Book Award winners include Cynthia Ozick for Quarrel and Quandary: Essays; Phillip Roth for The Human Stain; A. B. Yehoshua Avraham "Boolie" Yehoshua (born in Jerusalem in 1936) is an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright, known publicly as A. B. Yehoshua, and familiarly as "Boolie". Biography Yehoshua was born in the fifth Jerusalem generation of a Sephardi Jewish family. for Journey to the End of the Millennium and Arnold Eisen for Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community. Finalists in all categories will be invited to the Harvard Club event. For more information and for press credentials, contact Susan Wolfe at (415) 882-7740. |
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