Bestselling author surprises honors students during final exam

May 19, 2026 (Volume 49, Number 17)
Article by Sofia Ellis

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As they settled into their classroom for their final exam, students in Ellen Adams’ and David Eick’s “Dangerous Ideas” course learned that they would have a far different experience than they had envisioned. 

Dangerous Ideas is a first-year interdisciplinary sequence in the Meijer Honors College focused on moments of change, which students explore through works of art, music, film and novels, such as the highly acclaimed bestseller "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel.

"They were so engaged by this brilliant novel," Eick said. "So we thought, ‘What if we got the author to Zoom in to the final exam?’"

Eick, without any budget, made a long-shot request to St. John Mandel’s team for her to speak to the class. He said he was astonished to receive an enthusiastic response from the author herself. 

"We were excited, but didn’t tell the students," Eick said.

The book follows the lives of interconnected characters throughout various stages of a pandemic and the collapse of civilization. The story takes place in the Great Lakes region, centering on a traveling troupe of actors and musicians, a plot that allowed St. John Mandel to delve into humanity and culture within a post-apocalyptic environment. 

For their final exam, students were greeted with a prompt asking them to imagine they meet the author of "Station Eleven." They wrote about what made the novel resonate and the questions that still lingered in their minds.

When St. John Mandel virtually joined the class via Zoom, awestruck students began asking questions one by one. They commented on the book's Shakespearean motifs and their favorite characters. They asked about what inspired her to write the story and which of her characters she saw herself in. One student asked about her choice of using the third-person point of view.

“Showing a character’s thoughts is such a privilege of prose,” St. John Mandel said. 

Students were also interested in the writing process and what led her to make certain choices.

“I start off with a scene and then the scene begins to build characters, and a plot builds off of that,” St. John Mandel said. She also expressed the importance of realness and believability in a dystopian tale. For example, she knew it would be most plausible for post-apocalyptic civilizations to exist along bodies of fresh water, so she chose to set the story near Lake Michigan.

Students asked if she would change anything about the novel, now 12 years after its publication. St. John Mandel explained that she is a different person now, so she would certainly make different decisions. She said she viewed it as a reflection of that period and believes that all writing is a sort of time capsule for writers. 

“The novel is totally a product of the time it was written, as well as a product of the person you are at the time you write it,” she said.

— Sofia Ellis is a senior writing major and a student writer for University Communications.

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