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. Sequel!!! The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science. Illustrated by Kristin DiVona. London: Gold SF, forthcoming March 2025. Paperback, $24.95. ISBN 9781915983275. 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 of Mathematics for Ladies "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 "[P]lain spoken, direct, and spare ... welcoming to non-scientists ... a nice package" -- Stephen Payne, The Friday Poem "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
York County Senior College reading, Path of Most Resistance, March 19, 2024 (virtual). Womanthology podcast, May 16, 2024. Reading, American Association of University Women annual meeting, Colorado Springs, May 3, 2024. Lost Women of Science podcast, May 2, 2024. Reading, Pikes Peak chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society, August 15, 2023. Interview with T.D. Walker, Interstellar Flight Magazine, July 7, 2023. Reading, American Association of University Women, March 17, 2023. R Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, Tuesday, February 21. 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 in Mathematics for Ladies. Two asterisks (**) mean the poem is in The Path of Most Resistance. No asterisks mean, email me if you want the poem (yahoo: jessyrandall) *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, Fiona Haser Bizony, Janice Frankel Block, Amy Brooks, Ginna Brooks, Heather Powell Browne, Greg Coxson, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Paul Erickson, Re Evitt, Darcy Falk, Kathy Giuffre, Celia Gresham, Jennifer Gresham, Nicole Gresham, Ross Gresham, Julie Grisham, Tali Herman, Sarah Healy, Kris Kanthak, Anju Kanumalla, Terry Kind, Kathleen Kirk, Sandra Knauf, Rebecca Laroche, Lisa Lister, Phoebe Lostroh, Eva Lovell, Andrea Lucard, Norah McCormick, Heather McHale, Sarah Milteer, Amanda Newman, Carol Newman, Josh Newman, Alexei Pavlenko, Arthur Porter, Katherine Randall, Amy Shuffelton, Jane Shuffelton, Alan Simon, Maxine Simon, Steve Simon, Dava Sobel, Bill Stoesen, Robert Stoesen, Margaret Towers, David Weinstock, Anna Wermuth, Barbara Whitten, Dina Wood, Cindi Zenkert-Strange.
works consulted
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selected novels, poems, and films
Mary Anning:
Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable Creatures: A Novel. 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.
Bertha Benz: Haw, Penny. The Woman at the Wheel: A Novel. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2023.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rachel Carson, Marie Curie, Barbara McClintock: "Affinities and Disturbances" site-based dance, Barnes Science Center, Colorado College, 2020.
May Chinn: Haulsey, Kuwana. Angel of Harlem: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2004.
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.
Maria Sibylla Merian: Diane Ackerman poem in Scientific American in 2020. She says in her bio note she's working on a novel about Merian!
Maria Mitchell, Maria Sibylla Merian, Mary Anning: Atkins, Jeannine. Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science. Poetry. New York: Atheneum, 2016.
Beatrix Potter: 2006 film Miss Potter.
Emily Roebling: Wood, Tracey Enerson. The Engineer's Wife: A Novel. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2020.
Mary Treat:
Kingsolver, Barbara. Unsheltered: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.