Rebecca Skloot is an award winning science writer. Skloot has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She financed her degrees by working in emergency rooms, neurology labs, veterinary morgues and martini bars. She has taught creative writing and science journalism. She currently gives talks on subjects ranging from bioethics to book proposals at conferences and universities nationwide. Skloot lives in Chicago. She regularly abandons city life to write in the hills of West Virginia, where she tends to find stray animals and bring them home.