MICHIGAN MONDAYS: REBECCA SKLOOT AT THE HILL AUDITORIUM

A few weeks ago we went to see Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (one of my favorite nonfiction books), speak at the University of Michigan's gorgeous Hill Auditorium. Side notes: Hill's stage has been graced by everyone from the Grateful Dead to Yo-Yo Ma. I am super pumped to see M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel's band, She & Him, perform in July (!!!!). 

Anyway, Rebecca Skloot's talk was wonderful. She discussed not only her writing process for Henrietta Lacks but also her journey to become a writer. She was kind of a wayward student but somehow managed to get obsessed with Henrietta's "immortal" cells back in a high school biology class. Her curiosity got the better of her and she spent nearly a decade researching and writing about HeLa cells--Henrietta's cervical cancer cells, which were the first human cells to successfully thrive in the lab. Henrietta's cells opened the door to tons of research and led to, among many things, the polio vaccine. The book is completely fascinating. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend putting it on your reading list. 

My favorite thing she said all night was almost an offhand comment. When explaining how she wrote the book, she simply said, "I was just following my curiosity." Her high school obsession with HeLa cells stayed with her through her college creative writing classes, her graduate thesis, and finally to this book. And it all came down to being curious. I love that. It was such a great reminder, not only as a writer but as a person who is interested in the world. It's amazing how such a seemingly small thing--a human cell--can open up a whole universe of thought. What is your latest obsession/curiosity? I seem to have a new one every week but lately Warren and I have been really into ants. Terribly fascinating creatures, ants. 

"Immortal" HeLa Cells Photographed by Thomas Deerinck 

One more awesome thing about Hill Auditorium, which seats 3,538 and is known for having perfect acoustics. The architect's granddaughter related the following: "Hill Auditorium was nearly finished when I was fourteen or so. My father and I went to Ann Arbor. Father stood up in the last seat of the second balcony, and I went down on the stage. On my word of honor, I dropped a pin and he heard it." Awesome, right?

The good folks at Sun Dog Lit were kind enough to publish a guest post I wrote called "3 Writerly Do's and Don'ts Gleaned from J.J. Abrams' Alias." I love doing these Pop Culture Writing Lessons and can't wait to write more.