[Sehefac] This copy please: National Book Foundation Science + Lit is coming to UCR!

[Allison Hedge Coke]

SEHE Colleagues,

On Monday March 31st, 2025, at the very beginning of our Spring Quarter,
the National Book Foundation / National Book Award administrators, staff,
designated interviewer will come to UCR with a special event for the newly
named Science + Literature Awards, and our campus guest on their initial
tour, Claire Wahmanholm, winner. This is a very special event and a first
for UCR to host the National Book Foundation.

They bring their admin/staff to host, and the interviewer, as well as the
honored guest. They give 100 books free to have signed, and also supply
their own travel, and honoraria costs. We cover hotel, ASL, and
presentation space / recording costs for our venus, only.

They ask that we fill the seats for guest and interviewer (Claire
Wahmanholm and Donika Kelly).

Wondering if I can get a headcount on who might support by getting students
(and colleagues) interested and who might be able to encourage
current classes  to be excited about this and perhaps add extra credit (or
require) to Spring syllabus, and send an announcement to new students, once
we are able to do that for our Spring sessions.

Some information on the awards. I've been fortunate to be called upon to
nominate for these awards and we have hosted 3 of the 9 winners prior, but
through Writers Week and mostly just prior to their awards being announced.
I have turned over Writers Week to other colleagues to direct, so this will
be my biggie for this year, though I am (as usual) completely behind the
scenes on day of event. NBF will host, Donika Kelly will interview and
Claire Wahmanholm will be our honored guest with this newly announced award.

My very best!

Allison

https://www.nationalbook.org/announcing-the-2025-science-literature-titles/

"Claire Wahmanholm <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/claire-wahmanholm/>
’s *Meltwater *dissects the vulnerability of parenthood and our natural
world, with embedded erasure poems of Lacy M. Johnson’s “How to Mourn a
Glacier” throughout the collection. *Meltwater *simultaneously mourns the
disastrous effects of the climate crisis while finding moments of joy in
the everyday through the eyes of a new mother."

from:

The National Book Foundation (NBF) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today
announced selected titles for the fourth year of the Science + Literature
program, made possible by a three-year, $525,000 renewal grant from the
Sloan Foundation. The initiative identifies three books annually, across
fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, that deepen readers’ understanding of
science and technology. Authors receive a $10,000 cash prize, are
celebrated at a public ceremony in March, and are featured in associated
national public programming. The titles are selected by a committee of five
scientific and literary experts, also announced today.

The three honored titles consider what it means to be animal, to be human,
and to be responsible to the world we inhabit. *The Last Animal  *by Ramona
Ausubel <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/ramona-ausubel/> follows two
teenage sisters who join their mother—a paleontology graduate student—on
scientific expeditions near and far. Ausubel’s novel captures the wonder of
scientific discovery as Jane and her daughters navigate grief, sexism, and
a journey to find a wooly mammoth and themselves. ClaireWahmanholm
<https://www.nationalbook.org/people/claire-wahmanholm/>’s *Meltwater *dissects
the vulnerability of parenthood and our natural world, with embedded
erasure poems of Lacy M. Johnson’s “How to Mourn a Glacier” throughout the
collection. *Meltwater *simultaneously mourns the disastrous effects of the
climate crisis while finding moments of joy in the everyday through the
eyes of a new mother. Ed Yong <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/ed-yong/>
’s *An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms
Around Us *invites
readers into the remarkable sensory worlds of birds, bugs, crocodiles,
dogs, and many other animals to show us how these creatures experience the
world. Yong argues that all creatures, humans included, have their own
unique way of perceiving their surroundings, making the case for why we
must collectively protect our biologically diverse planet.

“The Science + Literature program, now in its fourth year, highlights
diverse voices in scientific writing and honors innovative works that
expand our understanding of science, technology, and our universe,” said
Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. “We are
delighted to celebrate this year’s selected authors Ramona
Ausubel, Claire Wahmanholm, and Ed Yong—three exceptional storytellers
whose writing unlocks the mysteries of our shared planet, explores the
realities of living at a time of environmental collapse, and revels in the
many sensory perceptions of our world. We are grateful to the 2025 Science
+ Literature Committee for elevating these works, and to the Sloan
Foundation whose deep commitment to honoring groundbreaking science writing
makes Science + Literature possible.”

“We are delighted to join the National Book Foundation in recognizing these
three powerful and unique writers engaging with scientific themes and
characters across poetry, fiction, and nonfiction,” said Doron Weber, Vice
President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “These
gifted storytellers shine a scientific and poetic light on the beauties and
terrors of nature and what they reveal to us about our deepest selves and
our existence on this planet. We’re proud to add Ramona
Ausubel, Claire Wahmanholm, and Ed Yong to Sloan’s nationwide book program,
which has supported over 200 books from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s
Pulitzer Prize-winner *American Prometheus*, the basis of Christopher
Nolan’s hit film *Oppenheimer*; and Margot Lee Shetterly’s *Hidden Figures* to
recent works such as by Nicola Twilley’s *Frostbite* and Patchen Barss’ *The
Impossible Man*.”

On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 join the National Book Foundation and Sloan
Foundation for an in-person ceremony at The Cooper Union’s Frederick P.
Rose Auditorium featuring readings and conversation with the selected
authors. The program is free and open to the public, and livestreamed for
readers everywhere. For the third consecutive year, the Science +
Literature Ceremony is presented in partnership with The Cooper Union for
the Advancement of Science and Art, a distinguished private college of art,
architecture and engineering founded in 1859 by inventor, industrialist,
and philanthropist Peter Cooper. For in-person and livestream tickets, please
register here
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-science-literature-ceremony-tickets-1205966962649?aff=oddtdtcreator>
.

The 2025 selection committee includes authors and scientists whose work
across fields interrogates and advances public understanding of the
limitless connections between science, technology, and the humanities. Sara
Goudarzi <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/sara-goudarzi/> is a science
journalist and author of the novel *The Almond in the Apricot*; Elizabeth
Kolbert <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/elizabeth-kolbert/> is a
journalist and the author of *The Sixth Extinction*, among others; Beronda
L. Montgomery <https://www.nationalbook.org/people/beronda-l-montgomery/> is
a biologist and the author of *Lessons From Plants*; Craig Santos Perez
<https://www.nationalbook.org/people/craig-santos-perez/> (Chair) is an
eco-poet and Winner of the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry for *from
unincorporated territory [åmot]*; and Joshua Sariñana
<https://www.nationalbook.org/people/joshua-sarinana/> is a neuroscientist,
artist, and writer.

Public events featuring the selected authors will take place in cities
across the country in Spring 2025 following the March ceremony, including
with partners at Metropolitan Community College <https://www2.mccneb.edu/>,
a public community college system in Omaha, NE; and the University of
California, Riverside <https://www.ucr.edu/>, a public research university
in Riverside, CA. Event details will be announced alongside the NBF
Presents spring season on Wednesday, January 29, 2025.

Learn more about the Science + Literature program here
<https://www.nationalbook.org/programs/science-literature/>.
2025 Science + Literature Selected Titles:

Ramona Ausubel,
*The Last Animal*Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

Claire Wahmanholm,
*Meltwater*Milkweed Editions

Ed Yong,
*An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us*Random
House / Penguin Random House
Author Biographies:

Ramona Ausubel is the national bestselling author of five books, most
recently *The Last Animal*. She is the recipient of the PEN Center USA
Literary Award for Fiction, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and has
been a finalist for both the California and Colorado Book Awards and the
New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Her work has been
published in *The New Yorker*, the *New York Times*, *The Paris Review
Daily*, *One Story*, *Tin House*, the *Oxford American*, *Ploughshares*,
and elsewhere. She is a professor at Colorado State University and lives in
Boulder, Colorado with her family.

Claire Wahmanholm is the author of *Wilder*, *Redmouth*, and, most
recently, *Meltwater*, which was a finalist for the 2024 Kingsley Tufts
Poetry Award and the 2024 Minnesota Book Award. A 2020 McKnight Writer
Fellow, and the winner of the 2022 Montreal International Poetry Prize, she
lives in the Twin Cities.

Ed Yong is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer based in Oakland. He is
the author of two bestselling books: *I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes
Within Us and a Grander View of Life*, and *An Immense World: How Animal
Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us*, which won the Andrew Carnegie
Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Royal Society Trivedi Science
Book Prize. He was a guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature
Writing anthology, a Guggenheim Fellow, and is a member of Liminal—a
science communication collective, co-founded by his wife Liz Neeley. He has
a corgi named Typo.
*Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, **Distinguished Professor of **Creative Writing*
*Look at This Blue
<https://coffeehousepress.org/collections/shop/products/look-at-this-blue>*
*     Weird Times, Be Kind*
If this correspondence arrives past your work hours, please do not feel
obligated to respond until an appropriate time. Respecting work/life
balance is important to me.
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