Katy butler biography

KATY BUTLER is an American Buddhist journalist, essayist, and cultural critic whose writing often begins with personal revelation.

Her first book, "Knocking on Heaven's Door: A Daughter's Journey through Old Age and New Medicine," explores her parents' deaths and a new art of dying for the modern age. It is due to be published by Scribner (Simon and Schuster) in 2013.

Published in the New York Times Magazine, her 2010 memoir, "My Father's Broken Heart," explored the moral quandaries created by advanced medical technology near the end of life.

The fourth-most accessed article in the magazine in 12 months, it was named a "notable narrative" by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard and was selected by Edwidge Danticat for inclusion in "The Best American Essays 2011," and by Rebecca Skloot for "The Best Science Writing 2011."

Based on her family's experience, she has spoken ab