One result of being a cancer survivor is that I really don’t like reading stories about cancer. One result of George Johnson’s skill is that his New York Times Sunday Review story “Why Everyone Seems to Have Cancer” had me from the beginning of the story and held me straight through, thanks to Johnson’s careful story development and wonderful use of words. What a delight it was to spend time with the essay, which won the 2014 AAAS/Kavli Science Journalism Award in the Large Newspaper category, and see how Johnson made it sing.