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Author Reading: Jill Viles, “Manufacturing My Miracle”

About this event



Longtime alum of the annual Iowa Summer Writers' Festival Jill Viles will read at Prairie Lights from her new memoir, Manufacturing My Miracle: One Woman's Quest to Create Her Personalized Gene Therapy.

 

Described by Bloomsbury (Viles's publisher) as an effort "to save her family from a rare hereditary disorder and what it means for our collective genetic future," Manufacturing My Miracle takes readers on Viles's personal journey of getting diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Emery-Dreifuss to learning how to craft her own affordable gene therapy treatment, which she keeps in her freezer "in her rural Iowa kitchen, beside her ground beef and frozen waffles."

 

Ranked as a bestselling book in Genetic Health, Manufacturing My Miracle” explores urgent questions such as: Who deserves access to life-giving treatments? What role should profit play in health care? Who is ultimately responsible for payment-private health insurers, the government, or the patient? (bloomsbury.com).

 

Jill Viles is a writer, speaker, and DIYscientist™ with a rare genetic mutation that set her on the path for writing Going Viral. Her writing has appeared in Johns Hopkins Magazine, and her scientific work has been published in Gene and Cells. A version of her story appears in This American Life (episode #577), and she was also interviewed by ProPublica and The Atlantic. Jill lives in rural Iowa with her husband, Jeremy, and a lively golden retriever, Yoshi. Learn more about Jill at diyscientist.blog.

Date and Time

Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM

Location

Prairie Lights Books
15 S Dubuque St
Iowa City, IA  52240
USA
319-337-2681

Category

Community Event

Registration Info

Registration is not Required

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