Saints legend Steve Gleason attends the New Orleans Book Festival to promote his new book

A Life Impossible, which is about Gleason’s courageous battle with ALS will be released next month.

On Friday, March 15th, former New Orleans Saints safety Steve Gleason attended the New Orleans Book Festival on Tulane Campus to discuss his new book coming out next month, A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence. Saints owner Gayle Benson introduced Gleason to the crowd, while WDSU Sports Director Fletcher Mackel moderated the panel in Dixon Hall. Gleason’s wife Michel and NOLA.com columnist Jeff Duncan, who co-wrote the book, were also in attendance.

About A Life Impossible: “His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Writing using eye-tracking technology, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city, making him a hero, and reflected in a nine-foot bronze statue outside the Superdome. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Gleason lost all muscle function, he now uses Stephen Hawking-like technology to communicate, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. This book captures Gleason and his wife Michel’s unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially.”

Gleason’s book, which was published by Penguin Random House, will be available for purchase on Tuesday, April 30th, but you can pre-order it now at A Life Impossible by Steve Gleason