Faculty Book Launch & Public Lecture - “Out of the Blue, a Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness” by Jan Wong, Journalism Professor

The Fredericton launch of Journalism Professor Jan Wong's Out of the Blue, a Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness will take place Wednesday, September 26 at 7:00 pm in the Kinsella Auditorium, McCain Hall.

For twenty years, Jan Wong had been one of The Globe and Mail's best-known reporters. Then one day she turned in a story that set off a firestorm of controversy, including death threats, a unanimous denunciation by Parliament and a rebuke by her own newspaper. For the first time in her professional life, Wong fell into a severe clinical depression. Yet she resisted the diagnosis, refusing to believe she had a mental illness. As it turned out, so did her company and insurer. With wit, grace and insight, Wong tells the harrowing tale of her struggle with workplace-caused depression, and of her eventual emergence … Out of the Blue.

The book has been called an “instant classic” and has been on numerous national best seller lists.

For more information, please see, www.janwong.ca.  

Praise for “Out of the Blue”

"Jan Wong has clearly and accurately presented the history, signs and symptoms of depression and its underlying and associated pathological correlates. Her research is thorough and presented clearly. Bravo! Perhaps more importantly, she has painted an accurate and evocative portrait of a person trying to live a life with major depression. Jan Wong tells the story like a human being, in a way which will edify, disturb, or comfort the reader depending on who he or she is, but whatever that reader’s detailed response, they’ll be seriously engaged." -- Dr. Irvin Wolkoff, Toronto psychiatrist, writer and broadcaster.

"Jan Wong is a wonderful writer and, as she tells her own story, she speaks for me and for many. Some say depression is a gift. Well, it’s not. But this book is.” -- Shelagh Rogers, O.C., Broadcast journalist and recipient of the Champion of Mental Health Award

NOW Magazine wondering why Doubleday suddenly decided to drop the book: “I mean, really, what’s likely to sell more, a book about depression with a courageous personal account by a survivor of the disease or a book about depression with a courageous personal account by a survivor of the disease that includes her conflict with her employer, Canada’s iconic national newspaper?”