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Online
Join us for Wordfest's fifth Happy Hour event with Robert Kolker, the author of one of the most talked-about books of the year, Hidden Valley Road. Pour yourself your favourite libation and tune into Wordfest's Live-Stream on Zoom at 5:30 PM (MT) for a conversation hosted by Wordfest's CEO & Creative Ringleader Shelley Youngblut.
The preshow reel will begin at 5:15 PM MT. The interview will start at 5:30 PM MT. We will send you detailed instructions about how to access the live-stream on Zoom after you've RSVP'd.
A few tips for the best possible experience if you're planning on using Zoom:
- Download zoom before the meeting. https://zoom.us/download
- Please email your questions to questions@wordfest.com. We will be monitoring this email before and during the event, so feel free to send your questions ahead of time if you already know what you want to ask.
This event is free but if you RSVP, we'll send you easy instructions to help you get set up, as well as our unique Digital Doggie Bag after the event, sharing all the links, goodies and references that Robert and Shelley mention.
We are so grateful to Penguin Random House for making it possible for us to connect with Robert. To get a copy of Hidden Valley Road, please get in touch with your local book stores (let's keep them in business!). Here are Calgary booksellers that would love to be able to deliver through curbside pickup or to your home:
Owl's Nest Books | Shelf Life | Pages On Kensington | Indigo.ca
About Hidden Valley Road
The heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand — even cure — the disease.
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the dream. After World War II, Don's work with the US Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen in one family?
What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. Their shocking story also offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy and the premise of the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. Unknown to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment and even the possibility of the eradication of the disease for future generations.
With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope.
About Robert Kolker
Robert Kolker is the New York Times bestselling author of Lost Girls, named one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books and one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2014. As a journalist, his work has appeared in New York magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, Oprah, and Men's Journal. He is a recipient of the Harry Frank Guggenheim 2011 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Curiouser?
Articles and Reviews:
- “Good Looks Ran In The Family. So Did Schizophrenia.” — The New York Times
- "Colorado Woman On Having Six Brothers Diagnosed With Schizophrenia: 'It’s Like Death Over And Over Again'" — PEOPLE
- “‘Hidden Valley Road’ Review: Young Men Touched by Madness” — The Wall Street Journal
- "Review: 'Hidden Valley Road,' by Robert Kolker" — StarTribune
