Jeff Henigson's Blog

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the United States detonating a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima. We’ve long debated over whether it saved lives—by bringing WWII to a conclusion without a massive invasion. But there’s no dispute that, in an instant, we killed 75,000 people, most of them civilians, and that 125,000 more died...

Yesterday, a notification popped up on my phone. “Traffic to your website has increased by 600 percent,” it said. I opened an app that can show visitor data, and, sure enough, the number had skyrocketed. People were stopping by from the UK, Russia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Finland, Liberia, Sweden, and dozens of other countries. It could only mean one thing: the story I’d recorded here in Seattle with BBC Outlook had been broadcast around the world.

Two weeks ago, at KUOW public radio in Sea...

I woke up one day this past week with a nervous flutter in my chest, drank entirely too much coffee, and, after taking a quick shower and dawning a button down, hopped into the car and drove across University Bridge to KUOW’s studio in U. Village. I was due for a remote recording session with none other than BBC World Service—in London!

It didn’t take very long to get over the butterflies. Asya, the London-based BBC interviewer, is a master at her work—calming her interviewees, asking thought...

During my trip to Los Angeles, I met up with Starlight Children’s Foundation Senior Vice President Chris De Haan and visited teens living with cancer at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Long Beach. We went from room to room, passing out copies of WARHEAD that Random House Children’s Books was kind enough to donate, and talking with teens living with cancer and their families. When I shared that I once had cancer, heads perked up, eyebrows raised, and smiles formed. One young woman,...

I’m new to the writing world, at least as far as getting published goes, so I was surprised at first when Authority Magazine asked me if I’d share some tips on becoming an author. Am I qualified to do this, I wondered to myself. And then I thought, I just might be!

Here’s a link to the full article on Medium.com If you’d just like to know my five tips for new authors, I’ll share them here:

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

Write every day. You’ve prob...

Random House Children’s Books generously gifted hundreds of copies of my memoir, WARHEAD, to Starlight Children’s Foundation for distribution through their partner hospitals across the country. I’m going on the road to visit several of them, and yesterday was my first—to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.

It was a wonderful, emotional experience. I spoke with kids facing significant health issues, their parents, and hospital personnel. Kids were so happy to get a free boo...

Jeff Henigson with KING 5 New Day Northwest host Margaret Larson

It was my first television appearance in a few years, and, admittedly, I was a bit nervous on my way to the studio. But Margaret Larson, the host of KING 5’s New Day Northwest, immediately put me at ease. She’s a wonderful host with a rich background in international journalism, serene and settling but with depth and curiosity.

Here’s a link to the video on the KING 5 homepage just in case you can’t see the embedded video below...

It’s always great to get listed on a bookseller’s must-read list, but even better when you’re scheduled to appear in one of their stores! Barnes and Noble has added WARHEAD to its “Best YAs for July” list (yeah!) and I’ll be appearing with a group of authors, agents, and creative writing professor Sue Shapiro at a Barnes and Noble in Los Angeles on August 12. Check out WARHEAD on Barnes and Noble and, if you live in LA, come to the August 12th event.

Here’s what Barnes and Noble’s Teen Blog h...

I’m happy to announce that as of July 2, 2019, WARHEAD is on sale everywhere books are sold! Stop by your local bookstore to pick up a copy or buy online. Here are some links: Indiebound | Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | GetUnderlined

Please help spread the word. If you like WARHEAD, let your friends and family know! Thanks for your support!

Seattle Magazine has just published its BEST THINGS TO DO IN SEATTLE list for July 2019, and the WARHEAD book launch at Elliott Bay Book Company is on the list! Not only that, they say WARHEAD “begs to be a movie!” Here’s the piece:

It begs to be a movie: When Jeff Henigson was a teenager battling cancer, he received a wish from a foundation and chose to travel to Russia to plead nuclear disarmament with Gorbachev. Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World is his new memo...