Six Bridges Book Festival

Peter Dunlap-Shohl & Jennifer A. O’Brien

PRESENTERS: Peter Dunlap-Shohl & Jennifer A. O’Brien
BOOKS: My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson’s & Care Boss: Leadership Strategies & Resources for Family Caregivers
MODERATOR: Kathy Webb

About the authors:

Reared in Alaska, Peter Dunlap-Shohl worked over a quarter of a century as cartoonist for the Anchorage Daily News. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002 at the age of 43, he underwent Deep Brain Stimulation, a delicate surgical procedure, in 2009. With much of his motor abilities restored, he wrote and illustrated My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson’s. Dunlap-Shohl and his wife, Pam, divide their time between Washington state and Alaska.

Jennifer A. O’Brien has helped thousands live more fully by recognizing that at the end of life comes death, that family caregiving is our gravest calling and greatest honor, and that love is greater than death. She is the author of the award-winning book The Hospice Doctor’s Widow: An Art Journal of Caregiving and Grief.

About the books:

My Degeneration is a book-length autobiographical comic about the author’s struggle to come to terms with a progressive, disabling, and incurable disease. It is hailed by doctors and patients alike as an honest and ultimately hopeful, if harrowing, read.

More than 1 in 5 Americans are unpaid caretakers for family members, friends, or neighbors, yet few receive guidance or emotional and structural support. Care Boss: Leadership Strategies & Resources for Family Caregivers fills this need by identifying and empowering the family caregiver as the leadership position it is. This testament to the importance of caregiving brings dignity, strategy, organization, and a whole lot of heart to the messy and seemingly impossible task of providing quality care to a loved one.

Sponsored by AARP Arkansas