Lydia Denworth: Friendship

FRIENDSHIP:
THE EVOLUTION, BIOLOGY,
AND EXTRAORDINARY POWER
OF LIFE’S FUNDAMENTAL BOND
Lydia Denworth
W.W. Norton, January 28, 2020
Hardcover, $26.95; ebook $22.73
ISBN-10: 0393651541, ISBN-13: 978-0393651546

Denworth reports:

As a science writer, I mainly cover the brain and psychology. In 2014, I went to a Society for Social Neuroscience conference and was fascinated. Much of the recent work of neuroscience concerns mapping the trillions of connections between brain cells.

At that meeting it was clear that there is an equally important map to be made extending out from the brain—the web of connections we forge with others. And although most relationship research focuses on relatives or sexual partners, there’s a new and growing focus on friendship. We now know that friendship shapes our biology and is part of our evolutionary story. It seemed to me that no one had really written about that in a serious way. I decided to try.

The subject had personal appeal, too. At that moment, I was wedged between kids going off to college and an aging parent and looking a new phase of life straight in the eye. It occurred to me that I better invest in my friends!

This is my third book, so I already had an agent I love. She helps me think through my ideas. Even so, it took more than a year to work out how to focus and structure the book. Friendship is such a big topic.

I ultimately decided to give the book two main narrative threads. By writing four chapters that trace friendship through the lifespan, I gave myself a narrative spine. The other thread follows the growing scientific awareness of the biological and evolutionary relevance of friendship and captures eureka moments along the way.

I was happy to end up at W.W. Norton, with its strong tradition of good science books. I also applied for and received a nice grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support my reporting.

My advice to aspiring authors is to put time and effort into your proposal—even money for things like early reporting trips, if you can possibly afford it. It will pay off in a better contract and a better book.

Contact info:

• Lydia Denworth, 917 453 3943, lydia@lydiadenworth.com, https://lydiadenworth.com/, @LydiaDenworth
• Book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393651546, https://lydiadenworth.com/books/friendship/
• Publicist: Erin Lovett, 212 353 5500, elovett@wwnorton.com
• Agent: Dorian Karchmar, DKAR@wmeentertainment.com

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