Shelby Van Pelt ’02, best-selling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, recently spent time with student fellows at the Gould Center of Humanistic Studies for an intimate session on imagination, curiosity, and what it takes to turn an unusual idea into a story people love.
Before the novel, the Emmy-winning Netflix film, and five million copies sold, Van Pelt was a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major at CMC. The skills that made her book possible are the ones CMC students are building right now: taking feedback, collaborating with peers, and delivering on a deadline. Her message to Gould Fellows was clear: these habits will serve you in any career.
Van Pelt’s afternoon conversation preceded a full house Athenaeum dinner and talk (“Misanthropic Octopus Takes Hollywood: How a Debut Novelist Transformed a Spark of Imagination into a Netflix Hit”), a program of the Gould Center’s Celebration of Coeducation Speaker Series. At the Ath, Van Pelt discussed how non-human characters, such as Marcellus the octopus in her novel, allow readers to examine human shortcomings while extending sympathy to beings unlike themselves. It is a premise her editor once flagged in the margin as “either brilliant or bananas,” a question she returned to throughout her talk.
Reminder to students, faculty, staff, and alumni: Remarkably Bright Creatures will also be the featured October to December title for the new CMC virtual book club, which is part of the College’s yearlong 50 Years of Co-Education Celebration. The club begins Oct. 9. Sign up here!
Read more about Van Pelt in our recent Currents Q&A and 2024 CMC Magazine profile.