Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer, and a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine; she's worked as a correspondent for the NPR show RadioLab, and PBS Nova ScienceNOW. Her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others. She teaches in the University of Memphis's creative writing program. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is forthcoming from Crown on February 2, 2010. It tells the story of HeLa -- the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture (pictured in the blog's banner) -- the woman those cells came from, and the family she left behind. Click Welcome to Culture Dish for an introduction to this blog and its author.
A quick post as I run out the door for the teeveey studio: Set your TiVos and your DVRs, mark your calendars: Tonight I'll be on ABC World News talking about my new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The segment will also feature members of Henrietta's family, and Vincent Racaniello with lots, and lots of HeLa cells.
ALSO: The first reviews of The Immortal Life are starting to hit newspapers. There's a terrific review on the front page of the Washington Post Outlook section today, and another great one in the St. Petersburg Times. Update: This great review just in from the Boston Globe too!
As the kids say: wOOt! Stay tuned, later today, I'll be posting details of the many HeLa related events happening this week in New York: At Columbia, McNally Jackson Bookstore, and more.
After ten long years, the serious countdown has begun for the publication of my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which will be on sale nationwide exactly SEVEN DAYS from today. I've been posting about my impending book tour, and all the great coverage the book has been getting, on Twitter and Facebook, but thought I'd also post a bit of a press round up here, and an update, for those who (gasp) don't spend all of their time in those places.
If you don't know what my book is about: it tells the story of a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became one of the most important tools in medicine, with disastrous consequences for her family. Please take a moment to read the full description of the book here.
And there's more to come soon: I'll be featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on February 2nd (check for local air times here), then Weekend All Things Considered on 2/6 (check for local air times here), and the Bob Edwards show soon after that. The Immortal Life will also be featured in Essence, Discover, Nature, Better Homes & Gardens, Vogue, Mother Jones, Smithsonian.com, AARP, Huffington Post, New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, and more. To read all of the coverage to date, visit the "press" page of my website.
For those who missed the news of my book tour saga ... have a look at this article, The Immortal Book Tour, about my decision to organize a grassroots book tour for myself, which starts MONDAY with this public launch event, which I'm very excited about. I will be on the road speaking at universities, libraries, museums and bookstores nationwide from next Monday until June 1st (how does a person pack for such a trip? I have no idea!). Please have a look at my full tour schedule to see if I'm coming to your town, which I probably am, and mark your calendars accordingly (events being added regularly, so please check back).
For those who want to follow what's going on with the book and the tour: I will be posting stories from the road here. To keep up with news related to the book, subscribe to the news updates on my website. Facebook is a great way to follow what's going on with me, so you can friend me there, and/or you can follow news about the book by becoming a "fan" of Henrietta Lacks.
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the book is now available for
pre-order. Quite a few wonderful bloggers have written posts (like this one)
about why it's important to pre-order my book if you're planning to buy
a copy (and I didn't even ask them to do this! As I said, I've been
very lucky, and I'm very thankful.) So go to your favorite indy store
or visit your favorite online store, order your copies, and please
spread the word about my book, and my tour.
Are you in New York? Anywhere near New York? If so ... mark your calendars and come join us for the PUBLIC BOOK LAUNCH EVENT we've all been waiting for (well, at least we here at Culture Dish have been waiting for it ... plus a few other folks): In an evening emceed by Jad Abumrad of RADIOLAB, I'll be talking about my new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ... and rumor has it, some of Henrietta's family members will be there with me to answer your questions and SIGN YOUR BOOKS! Also, we will have live HeLa cells for people to see. So much excitement, we can hardly stand it. And so SOON! February 1st (one day before the book's actual on sale date, which means if you come, you can get your copy one day before anyone else, then you can taunt other people about the fact that you got yours first) at 7pm at the fabulous McNally Jackson Booksellers. Spread the word! Full fliers and event details below the jump. And if you're not in New York, don't worry: The Immortal Book Tour is most likely coming to a town near you. See full tour schedule here, and mark calendars accordingly.
Okay, so the blog has been a weeeeeee bit quiet during the insanity of getting the book to press, and the book tour organized, and The Henrietta Lacks Foundation started (more on that soon!), but that is all about to change. After an invigorating few days at the fabulous ScienceOnline2010 conference (which others have so eloquently recapped here and here and here and here and many other places), I'm excited to liven things up here again.
And what better way to liven things up than GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF! Yes, that's right, there's a limited time, there-until-they're-gone free giveaway of copies of my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks going on starting right ..... now. So go here and request your copy before they're gone!
Much other stuff to catch up on, which is coming soon. But for now, go get your free book! And let me know if you win one (don't worry and stay tuned - there will be other giveaways on select blogs soon ...).
Big week here at Culture Dish! The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and its author (yours truly) were on the cover of Publishers Weekly (please note: THRILLED!). Inside that issue was a profile of me with some of book's backstory, a short excerpt from the book (longer excerpt coming soon in O, the Oprah Magazine), also a story I wrote about the crazy book tour I'm organizing (posted about previously here). But that was just the beginning of this week's HeLa developments.
Calling all academics: If you'd like a free advanced copy of my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, to consider it for course adoption, get thee to Random House's academic blog and request a copy quick, while supplies last (which probably won't be long at the rate things are going). See below for more information on the book, and advanced praise. It's a story with wide potential for course adoption in the sciences, bioethics, African-American studies, womens studies, creative writing, journalism, and much more. Added bonus: If you teach the book this spring, you can also get me to come speak at your school/in your classes as part of my book tour.
Some interesting news about the breast cancer patent lawsuit I wrote about for Slate's Double X Magazine a few months ago: A federal district court has just agreed to hear the case. When the lawsuit was first filed, many legal experts I talked to said they were sure the case would get thrown out of court for it's unusual approach, namely that it claims that the practice of patenting genes is unconstitutional See my story about the case here. Filings and other documents related to the case available here. And see below for the full press release about today's news:
Inside Higher Ed just reported that an adjunct instructor at the University of Akron quit when he was told that he had to submit to DNA testing. "It's not enough that the university doesn't pay us a living wage, or
provide us with health insurance," the instructor said, "but now they want to sacrifice the
sanctity of our bodies. No." He was right to question their policy: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 specifically states:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any employee, or otherwise to
discriminate against any employee with respect to the compensation,
terms, conditions, or privileges of employment of the employee, because
of genetic information with respect to the employee
Lots of excitement and news about my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa),
which hits stores February 2nd (after ten years in the works). It just got a starred review in Publishers Weekly and in Booklist, and was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers title for Spring 2010. Culture Dish is very excited about all of this. But the big news for this post is that I'm organizing a three-month-long book tour that will have me speaking nationwide at
universities, scientific organizations, bookstores, book groups, high schools, and
more. If you'd like me to speak about the book, about HeLa, the history and ethics of tissue culture, race and medicine, or any number of other related topics, see the Immortal Life's interactive book tour map below. Click
on your region to see when I'm scheduled to be in your area, and email me to bring The Immortal Life to your town.
The Immortal Book Tour is a grass-roots, author-funded tour on a scale that no sane publishing house would or could organize or fund. (For those not familiar with the publishing industry, see here for the New Yorker's humorous take on why this sort of thing is necessary). Crazy as it may be, I'm convinced it will be a fun and effective way to spread the word about this book -- and honestly, after ten years of working on it solo, I'm ready to go talk about it with everyone I can. I admit, I've imagined touring in one of these with cells painted all over it, but at this point, due to budget constraints, I may be touring in one of these. This tour will depend entirely on and funding from talks at universities and other venues, so locations able
to help cover expenses get priority (and many, many thanks), but I'm also looking to hear from bookstores and other organizations in towns I'll be visiting, where I'll gladly speak if I'm able to get myself there. Interactive book tour map and link for below the jump (and if you're interested in having me speak at a date after the tour, that works too: my schedule for summer and fall is wide open at this point):
Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer, and a contributing editor at 
After ten long years, the serious countdown has begun for the publication of my book, 
Okay, so the blog has been a weeeeeee bit quiet during the insanity of getting 
