Author Mindy Urlaub returns to Corsicana from San Francisco to be in conversation with artist Nancy Rebal about Urlaub’s new memoir of illness and the endurance of family, Last Nerve. Books available for purchase, with signing and reception to follow the conversation. Mindy Urlaub attended a writing retreat at the Writers House in 2024.
Last Nerve is much more than a trauma memoir. The story begins as Mindy Uhrlaub learns that she carries the gene for the fatal neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The news, while not surprising, is compounded by the fact that she is caring for her husband, who is undergoing chemotherapy for stage four lymphoma, raising a child with serious behavioral issues, and watching her own mother die of ALS. As she navigates the new territory of having three close relatives with life-threatening situations, she also has to come to terms with the fact that she may have passed the fatal gene to her two sons. Not one to fold, Mindy faces her circumstances head-on, realizing that her race for the elusive cure for ALS is not only for herself but also for her kids, her cousins, and the thousands of other carriers of the fateful gene. Despite the incredible strain of all these challenges, Mindy manages them with amazing tenderness, persistence, and love. Far from a depressing story of misfortune, Last Nerve is as uplifting and witty as it is raw and real. It’s a testament to hope, the endurance of family, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Mindy Uhrlaub is a carrier of the fatal C9orf72 gene and is an activist for genetic carriers of ALS. Her forthcoming book, A War of Nerves: An ALS Memoir, details her journey from ALS worrier to ALS warrior. She is a member of the Peer Mentor Team at I AM ALS, a founding member of Genetic ALS/FTD: End the Legacy, and participates in more than a dozen longitudinal studies of ALS. Mindy was nominated to serve on the committee of the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and published a report on June 18, 2024 on how to make ALS a livable disease. The committee was made up of neurologists, bio-ethicists, nurses, palliative care specialists, pharma, and people with lived experience with ALS. Mindy was there to carry the flag for the Familial ALS Community.
Mindy has traveled twice with Human Rights Watch and Eve Ensler’s V-Day to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has taken testimony of rape survivors and child soldiers. Her interest in preventing the pillage of resources in Congo has also led her to visit Virunga National Park and to sit on the committee for Human Rights Watch’s Voices for Justice Dinner.
Prior to writing Unnatural Resources, Uhrlaub wrote and produced STALLED, a feature-length film (distributed by Concorde New Horizons). She was also a music reviewer and copy editor for Denver’s PULP magazine. In addition, Mindy plays keyboards in 40th Day, a band that has toured with Kansas and performed with groups like The Smashing Pumpkins. She is a contributing author in the anthologies Mamas Write and She’s Got This (named 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist, Kindle Book Awards Reader’s Choice, and Best Book Awards Finalist). She has spoken several times at San Francisco’s Litquake and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and sons.
Our Bookstore features published work by the international artists and writers attending studio residencies at 100 West, and retreats at the Writers House, alongside their recommended books and a collection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays.