Jessy Randall, Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science. With a foreword by Pippa Goldschmidt and illustrations by Kristin DiVona of NASA's Reach Across the Stars project. London: Gold SF, 2022. Paperback, $20. ISBN 9781913380489. Gold SF is a new feminist science fiction imprint at Goldsmiths Press / University of London, distributed by MIT. Order from Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble. advance praise "The only good science fiction poems ever written are by Jessy Randall." -- Annalee Newitz "I never get tired of learning about women who achieved great things despite obstacles. There are so many of them -- and so many of them did not get their due." -- Katha Pollitt "A must for lovers of poetry and science alike!" -- Emily Hockaday reviews "For science readers who love poetry, poetry readers who love science, and feminists and students of all ages." -- Library Journal, September 22, 2022 "Secondary schools where there is interest in STEM projects, poetry studies, and women's issues will benefit by adding this multifaceted title to their library or classroom collection." -- School Library Journal, October 28, 2022 "Every [poem] made me want to know more about the woman and her work!" -- Kathleen Kirk "Fascinating, at times rage-inducing but always entertaining and engaging ... highly recommended" -- Jackie Law "A mix of reverence and vicarious irreverence, outrage and bemusement, anger and equanimity, pride and cheerful self-effacement" -- Stuart Kelter
American Association of University Women, March 17, 2023, 10 am. R Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, Tuesday, February 21, 6:30 pm. Hitchcock Project interview with Dina Wood, December 23, 2022. When It Changed: Women in SF/F Since 1972 panel discussion, Saturday, December 3, 2022, Science Fiction Foundation, University of Glasgow. "Delving In" radio interview with Stuart Kelter, November 13, 2022. Feature article in Library Journal, October 2022. Colorado College Visiting Writers Series, October 11, 2022, South Hall, 4:30 reception, 5:00 reading, free books to first fifty guests. Una McCormack reads "First Scientist" on BBC4 Radio at the 39:36 mark, October 6, 2022. Rattlecast reading and interview, September 19, 2022 (video). Home-made five-minute promo for the Pikes Peak Library District's Author Showcase, July 2022. Interview with the founders of Gold SF at the Analog blog, June 2022. York County Senior College presentation, February 23, 2022. Colorado College "Irons in the Fire" presentation, May 2021. |
Scientists, in chronological order by birth year. An asterisk (*) means the poem is included in the book.
*First Scientist (? - ?) in Analog |
acknowledgments
Thank you, Barbara Whitten, Colorado College Physics / Feminist and Gender Studies, for your 2015 talk on Sarah Frances Whiting, which was the seed for this series of poems.
Thank you, Rebecca Barnes, Colorado College Environmental Studies, for your ongoing work on women in science, particularly the Women in STEM Wikipedia Biographies project with CC students.
Thank you to everyone who suggested subjects for poems and/or helped in other ways: Marianne Reddin Aldrich, Melissa Penwell Belanger, Aage Bendiksen, Anna Primrose Bendiksen, Bruce Harris Bentzman, Janice Frankel Block, Amy Brooks, Ginna Brooks, Heather Powell Browne, Greg Coxson, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Paul Erickson, Re Evitt, Darcy Falk, Celia Gresham, Jennifer Gresham, Nicole Gresham, Ross Gresham, Julie Grisham, Sarah Healy, Kris Kanthak, Anju Kanumalla, Terry Kind, Kathleen Kirk, Sandra Knauf, Rebecca Laroche, Lisa Lister, Phoebe Lostroh, Eva Lovell, Norah McCormick, Heather McHale, Sarah Milteer, Alexei Pavlenko, Katherine Randall, Jane Shuffelton, Alan Simon, Maxine Simon, Steve Simon, Dava Sobel, Robert Stoesen, Margaret Towers, David Weinstock, Anna Wermuth, Barbara Whitten, Dina Wood, Cindi Zenkert-Strange.
works consulted
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Blackwell, Elizabeth. Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches. London: Longmans, Green, 1895.
Bodanis, David. Passionate Minds: The Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment, Featuring the Scientist Emilie Du Châtelet, the Poet Voltaire, Sword Fights, Book Burnings, Assorted Kings, Seditious Verse, and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2006.
Bruchac, Margaret M. Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists. Tucson: University of Arizona, 2018.
Byers, Nina and Gary Williams. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Clapp, Patricia. Dr. Elizabeth: The Story of the First Woman Doctor. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1974.
Crumpler, Rebecca. A Book of Medical Discourses. Boston: Cashman, Keating, 1883.
Deakin, Michael A.B. Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2007.
Felt, Hali. Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor. New York: Picador, 2012.
des Jardins, Julie. The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science. New York: Feminist Press, 2010.
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Holmes, Rachel. Scanty Particulars: The Scandalous Life and Astonishing Secret of Dr. James Barry. New York: Random House, 2002.
Ignatofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2016.
Iqbal, Saima S. "Louis Agassiz, Under a Microscope," Harvard Crimson, March 18, 2021.
Koblitz, Ann Hibner. "A Biographical Sketch" given at the Legacy of Sofya Kovalevskaya symposium, Radcliffe College, 1985.
Lee, Jane J. 6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism. National Geographic News, May 19, 2013.
Lyusternik, L.A. The Early Years of the Moscow Mathematical School. Russian Mathematical Surveys, Vol. 22, Issue 4, August 1967.
Miller, Lulu. Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2020.
Moore, Donovan. What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. Cambridge: Harvard University, 2020.
Nimura, Janice. The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Sisters Brought Medicine to Women - and Women to Medicine. New York: Norton, 2021.
Ottaviani, Jim. Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists. Illustrated by Donna Barr, Stephanie Gladden, Roberta Gregory, Lea Hernandez, Carla Speed McNeil, Linda Medley, Marie Severin, Jen Sorensen, and Anne Timmons, with covers by Ramona Fradon and Mary Fleener. Graphic non-fiction. Ann Arbor, MI : G.T. Labs, 2003.
Padua, Sydney. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. New York: Pantheon, 2015.
Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia. An Autobiography and Other Recollections. Ed. Katherine Haramundanis. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1996.
Polo-Blanco, Irene. Alicia Boole Stott, a Geometer in Higher Dimension. Historia Mathematica, Volume 35, Issue 2, May 2008, pages 123-139.
Potter, Beatrix. The Journal of Beatrix Potter 1881-1897. Transcribed from her code writings by Leslie Linder. London: Penguin, 1989.
Richards, Ellen Swallow. Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning. Boston: Home Science Publishing Co., 1897, c. 1881.
Riedel, Samantha. James Barry Is Not Your Rorschach Test. them., February 19, 2019.
Robinson, Fiona. The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs. New York: Abrams, 2019.
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Sample, Ian. "British Astrophysicist Overlooked by Nobels Wins $3M Award for Pulsar Work." The Guardian, September 6, 2018.
Sobel, Dava. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. New York: Viking, 2016.
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Tsjeng, Zing. Forgotten Women: The Scientists. London: Cassell, 2018.
Whiting, Sarah Frances. Daytime and Evening Exercises in Astronomy, for Schools and Colleges. Boston: Ginn, 1912.
Winick, Stephen. She Sells Seashells and Mary Anning: Metafolklore with a Twist. Folklife Today: American Folklife Center and the Veterans History Project, Library of Congress, July 26, 2017.
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selected novels and films
Mary Anning:
Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable Creatures. New York: Penguin, 2016. Kessel, John. Pride and Prometheus. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Thomas, Joan. Curiosity: A Love Story. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2010. 2020 film Ammonite.
James Miranda Barry:
Levy, E.J. The Cape Doctor: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown, 2021.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rachel Carson, Marie Curie, Barbara McClintock: "Affinities and Disturbances" site-based dance, Barnes Science Center, Colorado College, 2020.
Marie Curie:
Redniss, Lauren. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout. New York: HarperCollins, 2016. Graphic novel. Adapted into the 2019 film Radioactive.
Rosalind Franklin: "Rosalind Franklin vs. Watson and Crick - Science History Rap Battle." 7th grade students, KIPP Bridge Charter School, Oakland, California, 2013..
Mary Treat:
Kingsolver, Barbara. Unsheltered: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.