One of world’s most influential lands new book deal

By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 08, 2008 11:56 pm

— High-profile opportunities keep coming for Terre Haute native Jill Bolte Taylor.
The 49-year-old scientist who specializes in brain research was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine last month. This week, a major publisher, Viking, announced its president, Clare Ferraro, had picked up worldwide publishing rights to Taylor’s previously self-published book “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.”
Ferraro and Viking completed the deal at an auction conducted by Ellen Stiefler of Stiefler Law Group, according to a report in this week’s Publishers Weekly. Viking plans to rush Taylor’s book into print this month to capitalize on the author’s rapidly rising profile.
Taylor survived an ironic and difficult recovery from a stroke that hit the left hemisphere of her brain Dec. 10, 1996, while living in Boston and working as a researcher and instructor at Harvard University. Over a four-hour span that day, Taylor lost her abilities to walk, talk, communicate and remember. But her nearly decade-long recovery opened a new view of the world for Taylor, who relied on the right side of her brain.
She told her story in “My Stroke of Insight” and decided to self-publish it.
“I didn’t want to wait a couple of years and be shopping it around,” Taylor told the Tribune-Star last month.
The 1977 graduate of Terre Haute South Vigo High School, who also earned her doctorate from Indiana State University, now teaches neuroanatomy at the Indiana University School of Medicine at Bloomington, studies brain cancer cases at the IU Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, and is a national spokeswoman for the Harvard Brain Bank. She also travels the country as “The Singin’ Scientist,” explaining the mysteries of the brain to audiences and encouraging brain donations, while armed with a guitar and a jar of human brains.
But her message reached Time magazine’s radar screen in March, when she gave an 18-minute speech on her life at the cutting-edge TEDtalks conference in California. It became an Internet hit, and led Time to include Taylor on its 100 most influential people list. She’ll also be featured on four consecutive Monday episodes of “Oprah’s Soul Series” on XM satellite radio, starring Oprah Winfrey.
Taylor’s book explains her story in detail.
“It’s a wonderful reassurance for anybody who’s recovering from a brain injury,” Taylor said.
Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

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