Nicole Hardina

Nicole Hardina earned an MFA in creative writing in 2009 from Eastern Washington University, where she studied with Christopher Howell, Samuel Ligon, Natalie Kusz, and Rachel Toor. She is currently researching and writing about glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly form of cancer and so-called “orphan” disease that came to national attention due to the highly publicized death of Brittany Maynard, as well as the death of Beau Biden, whose diagnosis was not made public. 

Nicole Hardina received 2016 GAP funding for This is How He Lives, which is a memoir about life with terminal illness in a time when the choice to die has become increasingly politicized. The book she is writing is part memoir and part journalistic investigation into the issue of death with dignity, and is an attempt to pair the personal with the political, to add to the conversation about death with dignity, and specifically to cast light on GBM, to date designated as an “orphan disease” for its lack of national research funding and the relatively low number of people it afflicts annually.