Author Guide · Memoir & Creative Practice
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In 2011, a few weeks before her twenty-third birthday, Suleika Jaouad was told she had a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia and a 35 percent chance of survival. She had graduated from Princeton the year before and moved to Paris hoping to become a war correspondent. Instead she wrote from her hospital bed: first a blog, then “Life, Interrupted”, a column and video series for The New York Times whose videos won an Emmy in 2013. After nearly four years of treatment, including a bone marrow transplant from her younger brother, she drove 15,000 miles across the United States in 100 days to meet people who had written to her. The leukemia returned in 2021 and again in 2024. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2021–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Suleika Jaouad has written two books: Between Two Kingdoms (2021), a New York Times bestselling memoir of leukemia at 22 and the road trip that followed, and The Book of Alchemy (2025), essays and writing prompts from about 100 contributors that grew out of her newsletter The Isolation Journals. Start with Between Two Kingdoms; the second book builds on the journaling practice it describes.
Where to Start with Suleika Jaouad
If you want her story
→ Between Two Kingdoms (2021) — the memoir of illness and of learning to live afterwards.
If you want a writing practice
→ The Book of Alchemy (2025) — essays and prompts to use, not only to read.
If you want to hear her first
→ Between Two Kingdoms (2021) — then watch the 2021 Columbia talk below.
2 Suleika Jaouad Books, in Order
Between Two Kingdoms
Published by Random House on 9 February 2021. The first half covers her diagnosis at 22, nearly four years of chemotherapy, a clinical trial and a bone marrow transplant from her younger brother, and the strain on her relationship with the boyfriend who cared for her. The second half follows a 100-day, 15,000-mile drive across the United States with her dog, Oscar, to visit people who had written to her, among them the poet Max Ritvo. The title comes from Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor; it was a New York Times bestseller and a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for memoir.
The Book of Alchemy
Published by Random House on 22 April 2025, it grew out of The Isolation Journals, the newsletter she started at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has ten sections, each opening with her own essay on a theme such as memory or fear, followed by short personal essays from about 100 contributors — among them George Saunders, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Gilbert, Salman Rushdie, John Green, Mavis Staples and Jon Batiste — each with a writing prompt for the reader.
In What Order to Read Suleika Jaouad
Read them in publication order. Between Two Kingdoms tells the story, including how keeping a journal carried her through treatment; The Book of Alchemy turns that habit into a practice for readers, with prompts from her and from other writers.
The Book of Alchemy does not need to be read straight through: you can open any of its ten sections and start writing. The Alchemy Journal (2025) is a blank companion for doing the prompts.
A reading path
1. Between Two Kingdoms (2021)
2. The Book of Alchemy (2025)
3. The Alchemy Journal (2025)
Everything Else Suleika Jaouad Published
Beyond the 2 key books: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Journal
1
1 book · 2025
- 2025The Alchemy Journala guided companion journal to The Book of Alchemy, Random House
The years · 1988–2025
Quick facts about Suleika Jaouad
- Known for
- Writing about leukemia and its aftermath, first in the Emmy-winning New York Times series “Life, Interrupted” and then in her memoir Between Two Kingdoms, and turning journaling into a shared practice through The Isolation Journals.
- 1988
- Born in New York City
- 2011
- Diagnosed with leukemia at 22
- Born
- 5 July 1988, New York City; her father is from Tunisia, her mother from Switzerland
- Education
- Princeton, AB in Near Eastern studies (2010); Bennington College, MFA (2020)
- Journalism
- “Life, Interrupted”, The New York Times; its video series won an Emmy (2013)
- Newsletter
- The Isolation Journals, started in 2020
- Married
- Jon Batiste, musician (February 2022)
- On screen
- American Symphony (2023), Matthew Heineman’s documentary about her and Batiste
The red mark is 2021: Between Two Kingdoms, the memoir her reputation rests on.
How Suleika Jaouad Writes: From the Journal Outward
Her books start in a journal. During treatment she kept one, and that writing became a blog, then “Life, Interrupted”, which she wrote and filmed for The New York Times from 2012. Between Two Kingdoms keeps that close, first-person register: hospital rooms, her isolation during treatment, which she called “incanceration”, and the people around her bed.
The memoir’s real subject is what comes after. Her title borrows Susan Sontag’s line that everyone born holds “dual citizenship” in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick, and the second half of the book is a road trip: 15,000 miles in 100 days, visiting strangers who had written to her, to work out how to live once treatment ended.
The Book of Alchemy moves from her story to the reader’s. It collects about 100 short essays by other people, each ending in a prompt, built on her own experience that “journaling through illness gave me a productive way to engage with my new reality.” For writers in the same register, see Authors like Suleika Jaouad.
Watch
Suleika Jaouad on Between Two Kingdoms
In May 2021, a few months after Between Two Kingdoms was published, Jaouad talks with the novelist Nellie Hermann at Columbia University’s Narrative Medicine Rounds about her diagnosis, her treatment and the road trip that followed.
Frequently asked questions about Suleika Jaouad’s books
How many books has Suleika Jaouad written?
Two: the memoir Between Two Kingdoms (2021) and The Book of Alchemy (2025). She has also published The Alchemy Journal (2025), a companion journal.
What are Suleika Jaouad’s books in order?
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (2021) and The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (2025).
Where should I start with Suleika Jaouad?
With Between Two Kingdoms. It tells the story behind everything else she does, including the journaling practice that The Book of Alchemy is built on.
What is Suleika Jaouad’s most famous book?
Between Two Kingdoms (2021), a New York Times bestseller that was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post, among others.
Who is Suleika Jaouad?
An American writer, born on 5 July 1988 in New York City, best known for the memoir Between Two Kingdoms (2021) about her leukemia diagnosis at 22, and for “Life, Interrupted”, her New York Times column and video series, whose videos won an Emmy.
What type of cancer did Suleika Jaouad have?
A rare form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), diagnosed in 2011, a few weeks before her twenty-third birthday. Doctors gave her a 35 percent chance of survival.
How is Suleika Jaouad doing? Is she in remission?
Her leukemia has come back twice since her first treatment: she announced a recurrence in December 2021, which led to a second bone marrow transplant, and it returned a third time in the summer of 2024. She shares updates herself through The Isolation Journals.
Is Suleika Jaouad still alive?
Yes. She continues to write The Isolation Journals and published The Book of Alchemy and The Alchemy Journal in 2025.
Who is Suleika Jaouad married to?
The musician Jon Batiste. They met as teenagers at band camp, have been together since 2014, married in February 2022 and made it public that April. The documentary American Symphony (2023) follows them as her cancer returns and he composes his first symphony.
Who is “Will” in Between Two Kingdoms?
The name she uses in the book for her boyfriend at the time of her first diagnosis, who became her main caregiver during treatment. The relationship ended after she recovered, before she and Jon Batiste became a couple.
What is the meaning of the title Between Two Kingdoms?
It comes from Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor: “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.” The book is about crossing back from the second kingdom to the first.
What is The Isolation Journals?
A newsletter and journaling community Jaouad started at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, sending writing prompts by contributors to its readers. It grew to more than 200,000 subscribers and became the basis of The Book of Alchemy.
Where is Suleika Jaouad from?
She was born in New York City to a Tunisian father, Hédi Jaouad, who taught French at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and a Swiss mother, Anne, an artist.
Did Suleika Jaouad give a TED talk?
Yes. “What almost dying taught me about living” was given at TED2019 in April 2019. In it she says that “the hardest part of my cancer experience began once the cancer was gone.”
Footnotes
- Suleika Jaouad — Wikipedia
- Between Two Kingdoms — Penguin Random House
- ‘Between Two Kingdoms’ Tells A Story Of Survival — NPR, 2021
- The Book of Alchemy — Bookreporter, 2025
- What almost dying taught me about living — TED
- Narrative Medicine Rounds with Suleika Jaouad — Columbia University
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The hardest part of my cancer experience began once the cancer was gone.”
— Suleika Jaouad, “What almost dying taught me about living”, TED2019
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