Email | Print

The Fourth Annual "Ken" Book Awards Breakfast was held Wednesday, May 2nd in honor of Patricia Warburg Cliff's son Kenneth Johnson who died from suicide as a result of his mental illness. The proceeds from the "Ken" book awards go to sponsoring the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's New York City Metro chapter's Kenneth Johnson Memorial Research Library.

The 2001 "Ken" Book Awardees included Xavier Amador, MD and Anna-Lisa Johanson for their book, I Am Not Sick I Don't Need Help! Amador's brother and Johanson's mother had schizophrenia and they know first-hand that when family members will not discuss mental illness, they keep the sick family member in denial.

Moe Armstrong, schizophrenic, won an award for his book, Through the Seasons, a collection of his poems and illustrations. Armstrong was an Eagle Scout, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, homeless, a family man and finally, a college graduate. He shared some of his poetry with an appreciative audience.

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer won an award for The Outsider. In it, Lachenmeyer grapples with his feelings about his father's mental illness with humor and a sense of irony. He treats his father's illness with empathy and dignity. Like Johanson's mother, his father had a lack of insight into his own illness.

Alvin F. Poussaint, MD and Amy Alexander won an award for Lay My Burden Down. There is an alarming increase of suicide among African Americans. Due to the prejudice and discrimination experienced, the African American community distrusts the psychiatric establishment and their book deals with these terrible facts.

Steve Goldfinger, MD, when presenting a special award to Claire Berman and posthumously to Ken Steele for their collaborative book, The Day the Voices Stopped, referred to Ken as an "American hero." The loss of Ken Steele was one theme that permeated the entire event. Berman, in her eloquent acceptance speech, recreated for us all the image of the late, great Ken Steele. Their book, which is Steele's autobiography, takes the reader on the cross-country journey of a very sick schizophrenic whose voices ceaselessly demanded suicide until that one fateful day when the voices finally stopped.