Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many others. She is co-editor of THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2011 and has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s "Radiolab" and PBS’s "Nova ScienceNOW." She was named one of five surprising leaders of 2010 by the Washington Post.

Skloot's debut book, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, took more than a decade to research and write, and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. It was chosen as a best book of 2010 by more than sixty media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, People and the New York Times. It is being translated into more than 25 languages, adapted into a young reader edition, and being made into an HBO film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball.

Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She lives in Chicago. 

For more information, visit her website at RebeccaSkloot.com.

Books by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot - Biography, Nonfiction, Science

Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, was buried in an unmarked grave 60 years ago. Yet her cells --- taken without her knowledge --- became one of the most important tools in medical research. Known to science as HeLa, the first "immortal" human cells grown in culture are still alive today, and have been bought and sold by the millions. Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where Henrietta's family struggles with her legacy.