I grew up in the small town of Elgin, Illinois. My younger brother and I spent every summer participating in the public library's summer reading program. (He usually won for the most read and I usually came in second.) It was a conservative time -- I needed a note from my parents to read "Catcher in the Rye" in Honors English in 11th grade.
I majored in journalism at MIchigan State University both because I wanted to be a journalist and because I could take more literature courses with that major than I could with an English major. I got to spend th more...
