NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A poetry collection, a coming-of-age novel and a history of deep sea exploration are unlikely to be found in the same section of your favorite bookstore. But they all have enough in common to be this year's winners of Science + Literature awards, $10,000 prizes administered by and the .
The two foundations announced Wednesday that poet Arthur Sze's 鈥淭he Glass Constellation,鈥� Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's novel 鈥淒igging Stars鈥� and Brad Fox鈥檚 nonfiction 鈥淭he Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths鈥� have been cited as works that 鈥渄eepen readers鈥� understanding of science and technology鈥� and 鈥渉ighlight the diversity of voices鈥� in modern science and technology writing.
While 鈥溾�淭he Bathysphere Book鈥� is the only winner you could officially classify as science, all three works draw upon science and the natural world. In 鈥淒igging Stars,鈥� the protagonist is an astronomer from Zimbabwe who emulates her father's profession. Sze, a National Book Award winner for poetry in 2019, has written often about nature and the cosmos. His poem 鈥淎t the Equinox' begins, 鈥漈he tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars/I have no theory of radiance/but after rain evaporates/off pine needles, the needles glisten."
The authors will be formally honored during a March 27 ceremony in downtown Manhattan.
鈥淭his year鈥檚 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 to our daily lives," Ruth Dickey, executive director of the National Book Foundation, said in a statement.
Doron Weber, vice president and program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, said in a statement that 鈥渢hese 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.鈥�
Science + Literature was established in 2022 through a three-year, $525,000 grant from the Sloan foundation, which has provided financial support for numerous books over the years, including two that became the basis for acclaimed movies: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 鈥淥ppenheimer鈥� biography and Margot Lee Shetterly's 鈥淗idden Figures.鈥�
The grant is in its final year, and Weber said he hopes the Sloan board will approve funding for another three years. A vote is expected in March.
鈥淲e are very pleased with the results this far,鈥� Weber said.
The winners were chosen by a panel of authors and scientists, including evolutionary biologist and PBS host Shane Campbell-Staton, poet Brian Teare and committee chair Ricardo Nuila, author of 鈥淭he People鈥檚 Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.鈥�
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
