Andy Chaleff

 Andy Chaleff (1970-Present) is an American author born in Burbank, California. In 2018 he published The Last Letter, which won several awards and received the Kirkus review: It’s rare that a book succeeds at relating such an intimate, personal story while also clearly discussing psychological topics, such as projection, self-destruction, addiction, self-acceptance, and vulnerability. In 2020 he published his second book, The Wounded Healer, which details his journey of traveling across the US on a book tour for The Last Letter. Andy lives vulnerability more than he speaks about it. On April 8th, 1989, his mother was hit and killed by a drunk driver. He was eighteen years old and this single event defined his entire life afterwards. Three years after her death, he left the U.S., never to return to live. He speaks often about learning to face and embrace pain. He has used his emotional healing process to support others who have gone through trauma or who are just struggling with life in general.In 2018 he started “Last Letter Project,” which was the consequence of an experience before his mother’s death (www.TheLastLetter.com). In college he was taking a Sociology of Death class, which prompted a deep fear in him that he would lose his mother. He sent her a letter expressing his feelings for her. She read the letter just hours before she died. Because of this experience, the awareness of life’s impermanence has guided and driven his life.The Last Letter Project is about leveraging the reality of death into an urgency to connect with others. In 2018 and beyond, Andy is offering workshops that invite people to come together to write a last letter to someone they love. This can be someone they have possibly not told how much they love them, or someone with whom it is hard for them to connect. Since offering the workshop, Andy has sat with over 80 groups in the US, Europe and Asia.