Anne Fadiman Q&A

For the freshman class's summer reading book, we had to read a book called "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." There were pretty mixed opinions about it when we all got on campus, but personally, I thought the book was fantastic. I read it twice; once when we got it early in June, and again at the beginning of August so it was fresh for orientation week. I completely marked it up like crazy with little Post-It notes so I wouldn't forget where the important parts were.

Well, Coe got the author, Anne Fadiman, to come out and give us a Q&A session tonight, and she will be giving a speech tomorrow. I went to the Q&A tonight (admittedly, I came in about 20 minutes late... very embarassing), and it was really interesting.

Anne is such a fantastic speaker. She seems to always have a lot to say. Other students were asking questions and she always elaborated on the topic. She went into a spiel about an experience she had when she was doing some kind of journalistic research in North Manitoba in Canada with a bunch of scientists, and at the end of the trip, one of them had his arm mauled by a polar bear. She didn't tell us to freak us out, but to prove a point that the scientists who saved their life showed really heroism. She's always looking for deeper meanings, such as with an event like this, when I would just perceive it as scary and that-can't-happen-to-me, but she looks at it and wants to know what she can connect it to.

After the Q&A, Anne stuck around to talk to the kids who lingered and to sign books for those of us that wanted her to. She wrote in my book an adorable personal message regarding my immense use of Post-Its: "For Kristine- Nothing gives a writer greater pleasure than seeing such a well-Post-It-ed book! -Anne Fadiman." She was really, really nice and genuine in person. I am looking forward to her speech tomorrow because I can tell that it is going to be good. She's a humble writer who has made a name for herself through persistence and hard-work and following her passions and she's a real inspiration.