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What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Arlington Heights native and John Hersey H.S. graduate Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate memoir, Standefer tells the story of her troubled relationship to her own ICD, from her harrowing experience in the American healthcare system to her global journey to the mines and factories where the minerals in her device may have originated. Deeply personal and sharply reported, Lightning Flowers takes a hard look at technological mythos, healthcare, and our cultural relationship to death--raising important questions about our obligations to one another, and the cost of saving one life. 

Named one of O, The Oprah Magazine’s Best Books of Fall 2020, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice/Staff Pick, and one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best 100 Nonfiction Books of 2020, Lightning Flowers has also been featured in People Magazine, on NPR’s Fresh Air, and on the goop podcast.  

Standefer’s previous writing appeared in The Best American Essays 2016 and won the 2015 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction. She earned her MFA at the University of Arizona and teaches at Ashland University’s Low-Residency MFA program. Standefer currently lives on a piñon- and juniper-studded mesa in New Mexico with her chickens.

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Standefer is also hosting a writing workshop, Writing the Complicated Self Workshop with Kati Standefer on Saturday, July 17.