"Science + Literature" Rewards $10,000 for Works of Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction

"Explore the intersection of science and literature with award-winning works by Arthur Sze, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, and Brad Fox. Dive into diverse voices shaping contemporary science and technology writing.

on Jan 25, 2024

"Science + Literature" Rewards $10,000 for Works of Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction | Frontlist

A poetry collection, a coming-of-age novel, and a history of deep sea exploration are unlikely to appear in the same department of your favourite bookstore. But they all have enough in common to be this year's Science + Literature award winners, which are $10,000 prizes administered by the National Book Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The two foundations announced Wednesday that poet Arthur Sze's "The Glass Constellation," Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's novel "Digging Stars," and Brad Fox's nonfiction "The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths" have been cited as works that "deepen readers' understanding of science and technology" and "highlight the diversity of voices" in contemporary science and technology writing.

While "The Bathysphere Book" is the only winner that can be technically classified as science, all three pieces incorporate science and the natural environment. In "Digging Stars," the protagonist is a Zimbabwean astronomer who pursues her father's career. Sze, a National Book Award recipient for poetry in 2019, has frequently written about nature and the universe. His poem "At the Equinox" begins, "The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars/I have no theory of radiance/but after rain evaporates, the needles glisten."

The authors will be formally recognised at a March 27 ceremony in central Manhattan. "This year's deeply researched and inventive selections by Brad Fox, Arthur Sze, and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma exemplify why science and technology are so important to the arts and our daily lives," Ruth Dickey, executive director of the National Book Foundation, said in a statement.

Doron Weber, vice president and programme director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, stated that "these gifted storytellers shine a light on the complex inner lives of their characters as they explore the mysteries of the external world, from the ocean to the cosmos, from Japan to Zimbabwe."

Science + Literature was founded in 2022 with a three-year, $525,000 grant from the Sloan Foundation, which has funded numerous books over the years, including two that have inspired acclaimed films: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's "Oppenheimer" biography and Margot Lee Shetterly's "Hidden Figures."

The award is in its final year, and Weber hopes the Sloan board will extend it for another three years. The vote is scheduled in March.

"We are very pleased with the results this far," he remarked.

A group of authors and scientists decided the winners, including evolutionary biologist and PBS anchor Shane Campbell-Staton, poet Brian Teare, and committee head Ricardo Nuila, author of "The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine."