The Alfred P. Sloan Desk for Science and Technology Writing at The Writers Room was established in 1998 with a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (www.sloan.org). The desk is reserved for authors who are researching and writing books that increase for a general readership a greater understanding of science and technology.
The recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Desk for Science and Technology Writing will receive a free membership in The Writers Room for one year (twelve consecutive months) during which time they have 24-hour access to a desk dedicated and reserved for their use alone.
Since its inception, the “Sloan Desk” has helped to launch the careers of writers who went on to make award-winning contributions to the field. Two of its first occupants, Alan Burdick and Harriet Washington, for example, have decades-long careers as award-winning science journalists.
How to apply for the Alfred P. Sloan Desk
All applicants will submit the following as a requirement
1) CV, or a bio, emphasizing his or her qualifications in disseminating developments in science and/or medical research;
2) Project description that cites the genre, i.e., fiction or non-fiction (maximum 700 words)
3) Table of contents that details the project
4) Chapter descriptions of 1-3 sentences
We strongly recommend
including an excerpt, if available
as many as three samples of related work (scientific writing for popular consumption that expands the public understanding of science). Samples can be full-length articles, book excerpts, or samples as brief as a page or two.
indicating the platforms on which the proposed book will find a wide readership.
Please send application materials as an attachment to apsdesk@writersroom.org. All applications will be reviewed by a committee that includes former APS Desk awardees, APS grant awardees and writers teaching in narrative medicine and/or science programs.
Kriota Willberg - SURGERY COMICS
Our 2001 “Sloan Desk” Recipient Kriota Willberg has spent her year creating a “graphic novel” called Surgery Comics.
The goal of Surgery Comics (working title) is to help readers understand, with words, pictures, and humor, the rationale for and events surrounding the act of surgery. This graphic medical narrative (popularly, but inaccurately known as the “graphic novel”) will educate and entertain patients, their families, friends, and the simply curious by providing clear information about the unique, fascinating, and awesome process of opening and closing a body.
Surgery Comics explains surgical routines and procedures that are exotic, mysterious, potentially threatening, or simply puzzling to patients. Familiarizing readers with surgical treatment, rationale, and terminology, can correct patient misconceptions and demystify these life-changing operations. Surgery Comics will supports readers’ knowledge and perception of surgery from multiple perspectives: patient, surgeon, medical, historical, and cultural.
Here is an excerpt -
BOOKS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY WRITERS ROOM MEMBERS
The Girl with the Crooked Nose: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry by Ted Botha
Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation by Alan Burdick
Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink, M.D.
The Breakthrough: Immunology and the Race to Cure Cancer by Charles Graeber
The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber
The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness, Kelli Harding, M.D. M.P.H.
The Unity of Perception: Content, Consciousness, Evidence by Susanna Schellenberg
In the Mind Fields: Exploring the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis by Casey Schwartz
Absolute Zero And The Conquest of Cold by Tom Shachtman
The Winchester: The Gun That Built an American Dynasty by Laura Trevelyan
Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent by Harriet Washington
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet Washington
Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness by Harriet Washington
Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—and the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future by Harriet Washington
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington
Living Healthy with Hepatitis C: Natural and Conventional Approaches to Recover Your Quality of Life by Harriet Washington
Other Writers Room members writing in the field of science
