Biography

El-Hai was the executive vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors

American Society of Journalists and Authors

The American Society of Journalists and Authors was founded in 1948 as the Society of Magazine Writers, and is an organization of independent nonfiction writers in the United States...

 and winner in 2002 of an outstanding medical article as recognized by the June Roth Memorial Fund. He has been a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post Magazine, American Heritage

American Heritage (magazine)

American Heritage is a quarterly magazine dedicated to covering the history of the United States for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by Forbes. Since that time, Edwin S...

, and other publications. He is the author of a biography of Dr. Walter Freeman, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness (2005, Wiley).

El-Hai lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two daughters.