Andrea J. Buchanan, best-selling YA author and memoirist

Tuesday, April 10
4:15 p.m. -- Conversation about her memoir of overcoming neurological illness, Campus Center Room 375, Uptown Campus
7 p.m. -- Conversation on writing for children and young adults, Guilderland Public Library's Helderberg Room, 2228 Western Avenue, Guilderland
Free and open to the public

-- Podcast with Andrea J. Buchanan and Paul Grondahl --

The New York State Writers Institute welcomes New York Times bestselling author Andrea J. Buchanan, co-author of the million-selling The Daring Book for Girls series and author of the new memoir The Beginning of Everything: The Year I Lost My Mind and Found Myself.

Buchanan will host a conversation about her memoir of overcoming neurological illness at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 10 in the University at Albany's Campus Center Room 375 on the uptown campus. Later that same day, she will participate in a conversation on writing for children and young adults at 7 p.m. at the Guilderland Public Library's Helderberg Room, 2228 Western Avenue.

The Beginning of Everything recounts Buchanan's harrowing experience with a real-life neurological mystery that began with a coughing fit in 2015. The coughs caused a small tear in her dura mater, the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. What followed was nine months of pain and confusion as her brain, no longer cushioned by a healthy waterbed of cerebrospinal fluid, sank in her skull.

Rachel Simon, author of The Story of Beautiful Girl wrote. "I found The Beginning of Everything to be unputdownable, emotionally gripping, and devastatingly honest. It plunged me into the shock and aloneness of the sudden capsizing of a life, and the agony and confusion that followed."

Buchanan's other work includes the multimedia young adult novel Gift, a sci-fi story that comes with its own fully playable Minecraft map, named one of Kirkus Review’s Best Books of 2012, her essay collection on early motherhood Mother Shock: Loving Every Other Minute of It, and seven other books.

Before becoming a writer, Buchanan trained as a pianist, earning a bachelor of music degree in piano performance from the Boston Conservatory of Music and a master's in piano performance from the San Francisco Conservatory. Her last recital was at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620.