Hannah Holmes

Hannah Holmes is the author of The Well-Dressed Ape, Suburban Safari and The Secret Life of Dust. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Discover, Outside, and many other publications.

Two exchanges from her Powells.com Q & A:

Describe your latest project.

When biologists discover a new animal, they follow a formula to produce a description of it. What color is it? How many legs? What does it eat? How does it mate? Does it dwell in trees, or under rocks? The Well-Dressed Ape applies the formula to Homo sapiens. The results are pretty funny. And fascinating. And sobering.

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Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

I once found Shakespeare's grave by mistake — does that count? I think it was his. It was so unheralded and covered with cedar needles that I still wonder if it was really his. Might have been a brother or a cousin Shakespeare. It was in Stratford on Avon, where he lived. I was hitchhiking across the British Isles, and lo! Out here, behind a church, it's Shakespeare's grave! I probably only went there to pee — I don't remember. There wasn't a soul around. It was just an old cemetery. (OK, I just looked it up online, and the Real Deal is entombed inside the church. So I haven't even been on an accidental literary pilgrimage. But I possibly peed near the grave of one of Shakespeare's relatives.)

Read the complete Q & A.

Visit the website of Hannah Holmes.

--Marshal Zeringue