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The National Book Foundation (NBF) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today announced with The Associated Press the selected titles for the fifth year of the Science + Literature program, which identifies three books annually that deepen readers’ understanding of science and technology, across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. 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. Since the program’s launch in 2022, Science + Literature has been made possible by multi-year funding from the Sloan Foundation.
This year’s honored titles—all authored by women—include a poetry collection, memoir, and novel preoccupied with the past, present, and future of the natural world. In her latest poetry collection Ancient Light, Kimberly Blaeser reclaims Indigenous stories and knowledge, while reckoning with ongoing environmental destruction and violence against Native communities. Mycologist Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian connects the binary-defying study of eels, slugs, and fungi to her personal identity formation as a queer, neurodivergent scientist in her debut nonfiction book Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature. In the novel Bog Queen, a forensic anthropologist investigates the discovery of a 2,000-year-old Celtic druid, and author Anna North contends with the history of Celtic Europe alongside the environmental realities of contemporary England. Collectively, these books invite readers to appreciate the care, curiosity, and scientific inquiry required to take care of our shared planet.
“We launched Science + Literature five years ago alongside the Sloan Foundation to celebrate diverse voices in science writing that would enlighten, challenge, and engage readers everywhere,” said Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. “Our 2026 honorees do just that—joining a constellation of 15 Science + Literature selected titles to date that have taught me so much about science, technology, and the world around me. We are thrilled to recognize Kimberly Blaeser, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, and Anna North’s astounding books, and extend our deepest gratitude to the intrepid committee of experts who read widely and generously across genres to select this year’s honored works.”
“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, our humanity, and our existence on this planet. We’re proud to add Anna North, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, and Kimberly Blaeser to Sloan’s nationwide book program, which has supported over 250 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 Food Intelligence by Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall and Metamorphosis by Oren Harman.”
The 2026 selection committee includes writers and scientists whose careers reflect the ways that science, technology, and the humanities intersect with our daily lives. Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez-Serricchio is a molecular geneticist, author, and science communicator; Daisy Hernández (Chair) is the author of The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, an inaugural Science + Literature selected title; Sean Hill is a professor, poet, and the author of Dangerous Goods and Blood Ties & Brown Liquor; Akil Kumarasamy is the author of Half Gods and Meet Us by the Roaring Sea; and Joseph Osmundson is a scientist, queer health advocate, and author of Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between.
“At a time when science is under attack, it has become more urgent to elevate books that bring together the art of literature with the wonders of science,” said Daisy Hernández, 2026 Science + Literature Selection Committee Chair and 2022 Science + Literature honoree. “This year’s winners remind us that language can be harnessed for a generous and inclusive vision of the world, and that through stories and poems we best understand snails and fungi and one another.”
On Wednesday, March 11, 2026 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 hosted by Flora Lichtman, host of Science Friday. The program is free and open to the public, and livestreamed for readers everywhere. For the fourth 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. Register for the Ceremony here.
Free, public events featuring the selected authors will take place in cities across the country in the spring, including with partners at GrubStreet, a nonprofit creative writing center and community space in Boston, MA; the University of Utah, a public research university in Salt Lake City, UT; and the Wisconsin Book Festival and the Madison Public Library in Madison, WI. Event details will be announced alongside the NBF Presents spring season on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.
Learn more about the Science + Literature program here.
Kimberly Blaeser, Ancient Light
University of Arizona Press
Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature
Spiegel & Grau
Anna North, Bog Queen
Bloomsbury Publishing
