“A welcome and poignant account of the intense human and political dynamics of a major children’s hospital that will have a substantial impact on the way you view children and their care.” —The New England Journal of Medicine
Lee Gutkind is a master at stepping into the worlds of medicine and revealing the unique desires, characteristics, and stories of the people therein. For One Children’s Place, he spent two years at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, observing not just the patients but also their nurses, surgeons, therapists, administrators, and families. What he found was an institution that excelled at responding to the needs of the children who stayed there, from the professionals who dealt with the unique problems of hospital furniture and design, to the nurses and social workers who became unwaveringly close allies to their young charges, to the doctors who undertook risky new procedures to save lives.
Brimming with hope and animated by fascinating anecdotes, One Children’s Place is a powerful portrait of heroism and heartbreak, by one of America’s foremost nonfiction storytellers.
Lee Gutkind has been recognized by Vanity Fair as “the godfather behind creative nonfiction.” A prolific writer, he has authored and edited over twenty-five books, and is the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary magazine to publish only narrative nonfiction. Gutkind has received grants, honors, and awards from numerous organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Science Foundation. A man of many talents, Gutkind has been a motorcyclist, medical insider, sports expert, sailor, and college professor. He is currently distinguished writer in residence in the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University and a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.