INNOVATION + LEADERSHIP Presents Award-Winning Author and Physician Suzanne Koven

On Tuesday, May 18 at 7pm EST, primary care physician and the inaugural writer-in-residence at Massachusetts General Hospital, Suzanne Koven comes to The Music Hall's virtual stage as part of the Innovation + Leadership series, now being presented in an intimate, online format. Koven will discuss her new memoir, LETTER TO A YOUNG FEMALE PHYSICIAN, a profound and humorous exploration of authenticity in work and life by a female doctor, with candid stories from the AIDS era to today's COVID-19 pandemic.

In his praise for the book, Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award and the evening's moderator, said "Suzanne Koven charts both the real and the spurious demands that the medical system makes on those who become doctors and care for us all. Her memoir is by turns reassuring and disturbing, comical and tragic, hopeful and dire...Koven writes with style and wit and grace-but, more significantly, with insight and compassion."

The 7pm EST virtual event includes an author discussion in conversation with Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity and winner of the National Book Award, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. The event will be hosted on Zoom via Eventive and books-which come with a bookplate signed by Suzanne Koven and cover art greeting card-can be purchased through The Music Hall's Box Office for pick-up or shipment.

Koven tells candid and illuminating stories about her pregnancy during a grueling residency in the AIDS era; the illnesses of her child and aging parents during which her roles as a doctor, mother, and daughter converged, and sometimes collided; the sexism, pay inequity, and harassment that women in medicine encounter; and the twilight of her career during the COVID-19 pandemic. As she traces the arc of her life, Koven finds inspiration in literature and faces the near-universal challenges of burnout, body image, and balancing work with marriage and parenthood.

Shining with warmth, clarity, and wisdom, Letter to a Young Female Physician reveals a woman forging her authentic identity in a modern landscape that is as overwhelming and confusing as it is exhilarating in its possibilities. Koven offers an indelible account, by turns humorous and profound, that sheds light on our desire to find meaning, and on a way to be our own imperfect selves in the world.

Suzanne Koven is a primary care physician and the inaugural writer-in-residence at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Her writing has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Boston Globe, the Lancet, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications, and has been featured on National Public Radio. Dr. Koven lives with her family near Boston.

Andrew Solomon is an acclaimed writer and the bestselling author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity. He is also a lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts; a winner of the National Book Award; and an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. He is a Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and a former President of PEN American Center.

The ticket package for Innovation + Leadership: Suzanne Koven with Letter to a Young Female Physician on Tuesday, May 18, at 7pm EST is $5. In addition to an event link, the package includes an author discussion in conversation with Andrew Solomon and audience Q+A. Books and tickets can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org or through the B2W Box Office over the phone at 603.436.2400. Books come with a bookplate signed by Suzanne Koven and a cover art greeting card and are sold through The Music Hall's Box Office, available for pick-up or shipment.