Melodie Winawer

neuroscientist | neurologist | epidemiologist | associate professor of neurology at Columbia University | Novelist

Melodie Winawer

Melodie Winawer is a neuroscientist, neurologist, epidemiologist, and associate professor of neurology at Columbia University with areas of expertise including epilepsy, genetics, epidemiology, long COVID, and the neuroscience of empathy, reading, and writing. In addition to publishing over sixty scientific articles she is also a novelist, the author of “The Scribe of Siena” (2017), which was praised by Publisher’s weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bustle, Shelf Awareness, and Real Simple, and was declared a “Must Read Book” by The New York Post. The book has been translated into German, Czech, Polish, and Norwegian. Winawer also wrote Anticipation (2021), which was a Publisher’s weekly “Pick of the Week”, called one of the “Best books released in November” and “Best Historical Fiction Fall 2021” by BuzzFeed, and was a Target Recommended Pick. She is a contributor to “We All Fall Down: Stories of Plague and Resilience,” an anthology of short stories by nine historical fiction writers. She is currently working on her third book, a dual-timeline novel set in modern and ancient Minoan Crete. To find the energy to write, she relies on unflagging enthusiasm and green tea. Melodie lives with her spouse and their three children in Woodstock, Vermont.