Keynote Speaker

Lydia Kang is an author of young adult fiction, adult fiction and non -fiction, and poetry. She graduated from Columbia University and N ew York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a practicing physician who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Great Weather for Media. Her keynote presentation will be a discussion of research which resulted in her latest book, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Her darkly humorous work brings readers face to face with one of our greatest fears: our own mortality-and the extraordinary lengths to which we will go to improve our odds against the inevitable, often with horrifying results.

What other authors are saying about Quackery. . .

“Fascinating, fun and occasionally infuriating ... a cautionary tale that should resonate, even today....” Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in the Jazz Age

“Peel away those quaint old patent medicine labels and add some modern buzzwords, and marvel at how has (and yet hasn’t really) changed.” Paul Collins, author of Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime that Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars