Deborah Tannen is best known as the author of You Just Don't Understand, which
was on The New York Times Best Seller list for nearly four years years,
including eight months as No. 1, and has been translated into 29 languages. It
was also on best seller lists in Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Holland, and
Hong Kong. This is the book that brought gender differences in communication
style to the forefront of public awareness. Her book Talking from 9 to 5: Women
and Men at Work, a New York Times Business Best Seller, does for the workplace
what the earlier book did for women and men talking at home. She has also made
a training video, Talking 9 to 5. Her book, The Argument Culture, received the
Common Ground Book Award. Her book, I Only Say This Because I Love You: Talking
to Your Parents, Partner, Sibs, and Kids When You're All Adults, received a
Books for a Better Life Award. Her latest book, You're Wearing That?:
Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, has just been published by
Random House.
Deborah Tannen is a frequent guest on television and radio news and information
shows. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 20/20, 48 Hours, CBS News, ABC World News
Tonight, Oprah, Good Morning America, CNN, Larry King, Hardball, Nightline, and
NPR are among the major television and radio shows on which Dr. Tannen has
appeared. She has been featured in and written for most major newspapers and
magazines including The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, People, The
Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.
Dr. Tannen has lectured all over the world. Her audiences have included
corporations such as Corning, Chevron, Motorola, Rolm (Siemens), McKinsey and
Co., and Delta, as well as the Board of Trustees of The Wharton School and a
gathering of United States senators and their spouses. Combining the results of
years of research and observation with videotaped real-life footage of office
interaction, Dr. Tannen gives her audiences a new framework for understanding
what happens in conversations both in the workplace and at home.
In addition to her linguistic research and writing, Dr. Tannen has published
poetry, short stories, and personal essays. Her first play, "An Act of
Devotion," is included in The Best American Short Plays: 1993-1994. It was
produced, together with her play "Sisters," by Horizons Theatre in Arlington,
Virginia in 1995.
Deborah Tannen is on the linguistics department faculty at Georgetown
University, where she is one of only two in the College of Arts and Sciences
who hold the distinguished rank of University Professor. She has been McGraw
Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University, and was a fellow at the Center
for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California,
following a term in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,
New Jersey. She has published twentyn books and over 100 articles and is the
recipient of five honorary doctorates. Dr. Tannen is a member of the
PEN/Faulkner Foundation Board and the Board of Horizons Theatre.
