Jeff Henigson

Jeff Henigson writes from the intersection of adolescent experience, illness, international affairs, and humanitarian work. Warhead is his memoir for teen readers about developing brain cancer at fifteen in 1986, undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, and then using a wish granted by the Starlight Children’s Foundation to travel to the Soviet Union. He hoped to meet Mikhail Gorbachev and argue for nuclear disarmament during the final years of the Cold War. Delacorte Press released Warhead in 2019. Henigson grew up in South Pasadena, later studied at the London School of Economics, and completed graduate work at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His professional life has included humanitarian-emergency work for UNICEF and the United Nations as well as work for a human-rights nonprofit. That background gives the memoir a wider frame: a teenager’s fear and anger unfold alongside questions about family, political power, and whether an individual voice can influence events far beyond his control.