Ada Palmer

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Ada Palmer
Palmer at the 75th Worldcon in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2017
Palmer at the 75th Worldcon in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2017
BornAda Palmer
(1981-06-09) June 9, 1981 (age 42)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • historian
  • professor
  • composer
Education
Period2016–present
GenreHistorical fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction, dystopian fiction
Notable worksToo Like the Lightning
Website
adapalmer.com

Ada Palmer (born June 9, 1981)[1] is an American historian and writer and winner of the 2017 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her first novel, Too Like the Lightning, was published in May 2016.[2] The work has been well received by critics and was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.[3]

Early life and education[edit]

The daughter of computer engineer Douglas Palmer and artist Laura Higgins Palmer, Ada was born in Washington, D.C. but grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, where she attended Key School.[1] She began her undergraduate education at age 15 for two years at Bard College at Simon's Rock, and then transferred to Bryn Mawr College, where she received a Bachelor of Art in history in 2001.[4] She then obtained a Master of Arts and a doctorate in history at Harvard University in 2003 and 2009, respectively.[4][5][6][7]

Academic career[edit]

Following a stint at Texas A&M University from 2009 to 2014, Palmer began teaching at the University of Chicago.[4][5] She was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago from 2014 to 2018, and has been an associate professor at the institution since 2018.[4]

As a scholar, Palmer researches and teaches about the Renaissance period. She teaches a class on the Italian Renaissance wherein students enact the 1492 papal election, complete with secret meetings, betrayals, and a final vote conducted in full costume.[8] In an interview, Palmer discussed her experience with the class, suggesting that students have a lot of favorable biases about this period despite its darker underside.[9]

Palmer co-authored The Recovery of Ancient Philosophy in the Renaissance: A Brief Guide with James Hankins in 2008. Her own first book, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, was published in 2014. Palmer holds that the Lucretius poem De rerum natura, rediscovered in the Renaissance, could be the first document offering a profane worldview; that is, the possibility to describe how the universe works without any divine influence. This theory has implications for the development of political science as well as other secular worldviews. Palmer and Hankins also argue that Lucretius' ideas directly influenced Niccolò Machiavelli and utilitarianism, because of the ways in which his theories helped them create an ethics working per se, without any external, godly influence.[10]

Personal life[edit]

Palmer was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and polycystic ovary syndrome in 2004, and is a disability activist with a particular focus on self-care and invisible disabilities.[11][12]

Bibliography[edit]

Fiction[edit]

Palmer's first novel, Too Like the Lightning, the first of the Terra Ignota series, was published in 2016, and was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Awards.[3] It has been described as a rational adjacent book,[13] a work influenced both by science-fiction and historical genres,[14] a fact the author has confirmed.[15] The novel won the 2017 Compton Crook Award for the best first novel in the genre published during the previous year.[16]

The Terra Ignota series has four novels:

  1. Too Like the Lightning (2016)
  2. Seven Surrenders (2017)
  3. The Will to Battle (2017)
  4. Perhaps the Stars (2021) [17]

Palmer has announced multiple upcoming projects, including Hearthfire, the first novel in a new historical fiction series about Viking mythology; and The Wrath of Abaia, co-written with Jo Walton.[18] These novels are scheduled to be published in 2027 and 2025, respectively.[4]

Non-fiction[edit]

  • Hankins, James; Palmer, Ada (2008). The recovery of ancient philosophy in the Renaissance: a brief guide. Firenze: L. S. Olschki. ISBN 978-8822257697.
  • Palmer, Ada (2014). Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard university press. ISBN 978-0674725577.

Articles[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Ada Palmer: Beyond the Exponential Age". Locus Magazine. Locus. May 14, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. ^ "Historian Ada Palmer's debut sci-fi novel receives acclaim, award nominations". Division of the Social Sciences. University of Chicago. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Trendacosta, Katharine (April 4, 2017). "Here Are the 2017 Hugo Awards Finalists". io9. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e Palmer, Ada. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF).
  5. ^ a b Jason, Heller (May 10, 2016). "Science, Fiction And Philosophy Collide In Astonishing 'Lightning'". NPR. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  6. ^ "Ada Palmer: Beyond the Exponential Age". Locus Online. May 14, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  7. ^ Barber, Gregory. "Ada Palmer and the Weird Hand of Progress". Wired. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  8. ^ Palazzolo, Stephanie. "Uncommon Interview: Hugo Award Nominee Ada Palmer". The Chicago Maroon. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  9. ^ "Progress", You Are Not So Smart, #96.
  10. ^ Farell, Henry. "The rediscovery of this writer in the Renaissance opened the way to the modern world (and, more important, the invention of political science)". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  11. ^ Barber, Gregory (February 10, 2022). "Ada Palmer and the Weird Hand of Progress". Wired. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  12. ^ "Ada Palmer". The Pearson Institute. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  13. ^ Eneasz Brodski (December 8, 2016). "Interview – Ada Palmer (Too Like The Lightning)". The Methods of Rationality Podcast. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  14. ^ Farell, Henry (May 10, 2016). "What's so brilliant about Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning". Crooked Timber. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  15. ^ Palmer, Ada (May 11, 2016). "The Big Idea: Ada Palmer". Whatever. John Scalzi. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  16. ^ "The Thirty-Five Compton Crook Award Winning Novels from inception in 1983 through 2017". Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  17. ^ Palmer, Ada (November 2, 2021). Perhaps the Stars (Terra Ignota, 4). Tor Publishing. ISBN 978-0765378064.
  18. ^ Palmer, Ada (December 30, 2022). "End of 2022 Reflections & Plans". Patreon. Retrieved April 24, 2024.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ada Palmer.
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