Elena Schwolsky

Elena Schwolsky, a retired nurse, an activist, and a writer in Brooklyn, New York, is the author of the award-winning memoir Waking in Havana: A Memoir of AIDS and Healing in Cuba. Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Nursing, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and several anthologies. Schwolsky, 77, was diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer in August 2021. She says that writing has become “a lifeline that connects me to the world and helps me get through the ups and downs of life with cancer.”