Sallie Tisdale
American nurse and essayist. Born in Eureka, California, Tisdale earned a nursing degree from the University of Portland in 1983. She has worked as a registered nurse and taught at Reed College, Northwestern University, and New York University. A largely self-taught writer on health and medical issues, Tisdale has contributed to the
Antioch Review, Tricycle, Harper's Magazine, and the New Yorker. "I am really a generalist," she writes, "drawn to a variety of subjects and points of view, but memoir and the first-person essay are the core of all I do." Her books include The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales of the Modern Hospital (1986), Lot's Wife (1988), Talk Dirty to Me (1994), The Best Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food (2000), and Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom (2006). She is a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and Salon. See also sallietisdale.com.