Andrew Solomon

Andrew Solomon is an American writer, professor, and activist known for his deeply researched works on depression, identity, and cultural transformation. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression earned the 2001 National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, establishing him as a leading voice on mental‑health discourse. His follow‑up, Far from the Tree, explores how families navigate children with diverse disabilities and won numerous honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Wellcome Book Prize. Solomon was born on October 30, 1963 in Manhattan, New York, and educated at the Horace Mann School, Yale University (BA), and Cambridge (MA, PhD), where his doctoral thesis examined attachment theory. Since the late 1980s he has contributed to major publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Artforum, and he has authored both nonfiction and the novel A Stone Boat. In academia, he holds appointments as Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, adjunct professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, and lecturer at Yale School of Medicine, while also serving as a former President of PEN American Center. Solomon’s activism extends to LGBTQ rights, mental‑health advocacy, and the arts; he founded the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT Studies at Yale and serves on boards of the Human Rights Campaign, the New York Public Library, and the Metropolitan Museum. His personal life reflects his advocacy: he entered a civil partnership with journalist John Habich in 2007, married in 2009, and is the parent of two children, Carolyn Blaine Smith Solomon and George Charles Habich Solomon. Through TED talks, documentaries, and extensive lecturing, Solomon continues to influence public conversation about love, identity, and the power of travel.