I welcome any and all inquiries (interviews, general press, work-related) about any of my research, teaching, fiction, music, anime/manga work etc. I can be reached at adapalmer@uchicago.edu
Please direct fiction publishing inquiries to my agent Cameron McClure of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Direct music-related inquiries to sassafrassmusic@gmail.com
Below are several short bios you can copy-paste, along with usable photos of myself. Feel free to use the bios in their entirety, or to edit or excerpt them to fit your needs.
General, 250 words: Ada Palmer is a cultural and intellectual historian focusing on early modern Europe. Her current research treats censorship and radical heterodoxy, especially the ways censorship evolves and changes during revolutions in information technology, from the print revolution to the digital. An Associate Professor in the University of Chicago History Department, she works on the histories of science, religion, heresy, freethought, books, and classical reception, especially the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Her first academic book Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance (2014) explores the rediscovery of classical atomism after 1417, and her forthcoming popular press book Inventing the Renaissance: the Myth of a Golden Age (2024) aims to introduce general audiences to the way the ideas of a bad Middle Ages and good Renaissance were formed, both in the early modern period, and by modern historians and propagandists. She is also an internationally award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, author of the Terra Ignota series (a two-time Hugo award finalist) beginning with Too Like the Lightning (2016). Her forthcoming popular projects include the novels Children of Abaia (a postcolonial lens on exoplanet terraforming, 2025) and Hearthfire (Norse mythology, 2026), and the essay collection Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2024) co-authored with Jo Walton. She is also a disability activist, a composer of polyphonic a cappella music, a scholar of anime and manga, and a consultant for comics publishers; she blogs for Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and at her blog ExUrbe.com; and she hosts the podcast “Ex Urbe, Ad Astra.”
General, Scholarship First, slightly whimsical (300 words):
Ada Palmer is a historian focusing on the history of censorship and radical thought. Her current research treats censorship and radical heterodoxy, especially the ways censorship evolves and changes during revolutions in information technology, from the print revolution to the digital. An Associate Professor in the History Department with affiliations in Classics, Gender Studies, and the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, she works broadly on the history of science, religion, heresy, freethought, atheism, censorship, books, printing, and long-term European history, especially the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Her first academic book Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance (2014) explores the impact of the rediscovery of classical atomism on the development of modern science and thought, and her forthcoming popular press book Inventing the Renaissance: the Myth of a Golden Age (2024) aims to introduce general audiences to the way the ideas of a bad Middle Ages and good Renaissance were formed, both in the early modern period, and by modern historians and propagandists. She is also an internationally award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, author of the Terra Ignota series, a two-time Hugo award finalist, beginning with Too Like the Lightning (2016). Her forthcoming popular projects include the novels Children of Abaia (2025) and Hearthfire (2026) and the essay collection Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2024) co-authored with Jo Walton. She is also a disability activist, a composer of polyphonic a cappella music, a scholar of anime and manga, and a consultant for comics publishers; she hosts the podcast “Ex Urbe, Ad Astra;” and she blogs for Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and at her blog ExUrbe.com, which hosts her recent essay “Tools for Thinking About Censorship” and her celebrated guide to how to find good gelato anywhere in the world, once featured in The Economist.
Brief and General, Fiction First:
Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series from Tor Books is a two-time Hugo finalist. Her forthcoming projects include the novels Children of Abaia (a postcolonial lens on exoplanet terraforming, 2025) and Hearthfire (Norse mythology, 2026), and the essay collection Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2024) co-authored with Jo Walton. She teaches in the University of Chicago History Department, studying the Renaissance, Enlightenment, classical reception, the history of books, publication and reading, censorship and information control, and the history of philosophy, heresy, science, atheism. She is the author of Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance (Harvard University Press). She often researches in Italy, usually in Florence or at the Vatican. She composes fantasy, SF and mythology-themed music, including the Viking mythology musical stage play Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok (available on CD and DVD), and often performs at conventions with her vocal group Sassafrass. She also researches anime/manga, especially Osamu Tezuka, early post-WWII manga and gender in manga, and has worked as a consultant for many anime and manga publishers. She blogs for Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and at her philosophy & travel blog ExUrbe.com, and hosts the “Ex Urbe, Ad Astra” podcast, co-created with novelist Jo Walton.
100 Words, Fiction First:
Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series (Tor Books) explores a future of borderless nations and globally commixing populations. The first volume Too Like the Lightning was a Best Novel Hugo finalist, and won the Compton Crook Award, while Ada received the Campbell Award. Terra Ignota was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series. She teaches history at the University of Chicago, studying the Renaissance, Enlightenment, heresy, atheism, and censorship. She composes music including the Viking mythology cycle Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok, and performs with the group Sassafrass. She studies anime/manga, especially Osamu Tezuka, post-WWII manga and feminist manga, and consults for anime and manga publishers. She blogs and podcasts at ExUrbe.com.
Academic Only:
Ada Palmer is an Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of Chicago. She is a cultural and intellectual historian focusing on long-durée intellectual history and the recovery of classical thought in the Italian Renaissance. Her current research treats censorship and radical heterodoxy, especially the ways censorship evolves and changes during revolutions in information technology, from the print revolution to the digital. Her published monograph, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, uses Renaissance manuscript and print editions of Lucretius’ Epicurean didactic epic De Rerum Natura to expose how humanist reading practices controlled the distribution of newly-rediscovered radical ancient philosophy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and how this affected the capacity of classical radicalism to influence scientific and religious thought at the dawn of the modern era. Her forthcoming popular press book Inventing the Renaissance: the Myth of a Golden Age (2024) aims to introduce general audiences to the way the ideas of a bad Middle Ages and good Renaissance were formed, both in the early modern period, and by modern historians and propagandists. Much of her research has been conducted in rare books libraries, especially in Rome and Florence, where she worked with Renaissance copies of classical texts, both manuscripts and printed books. She has been a Fulbright scholar in Italy, a fellow at the Villa I Tatti Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and an ACLS fellow. Her 2012 article “Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance” won the 2013 I Tatti Prize for Best Article by a Junior Scholar and the Selma V. Forkosch prize for the best article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas.
Brief academic:
Ada Palmer is a cultural and intellectual historian focusing on radical thought and the recovery of the classics in the Italian Renaissance. She works on the history of science, religion, heresy, freethought, atheism, censorship, books, printing, and on patronage and the networks of power and money that enabled cultural creation in early modern Europe. She teaches in the History Department at the University of Chicago, and her first book is Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance.
Music focused:
Ada Palmer is the primary composer for Sassafrass. Sassafrass began at Bryn Mawr College as a way of escaping the monotonous pop music performed by all the other singing groups. It was inevitably drawn into filk since all the members were already fans. Ada herself had been attending cons since middle school when her father started taking her to Dr. Who conventions, but Balticon gets credit for getting her and Sassafrass into a filk circle for the first time. Sassafrass’s song, “Somebody Will”, a space-themed exploration single from Sassafrass’s Friend in the Dark album, has been nominated for Pegasus’s Best Filk Song in 2011, 2012, and 2015, and in 2020 was awarded the Pegasus Award for Excellence in Filking, earning the title of Best Classic Filk Song. Because Ada studied a lot of music theory and especially Renaissance music, her compositions tend to be multi-part a cappella, with Renaissance, Medieval and, often, modal harmonies. Ada’s largest musical project is a Viking-themed album “Sundown”, whose songs, when put together, tell the story of the creation and destruction of the Norse cosmology focusing on the murder of Baldur.
Anime & Manga focused:
Ada Palmer is the founder of TezukaInEnglish.com, now the primary English language web resource for information about Osamu Tezuka’s life, works and international publication history. She has worked as a consultant for Tezuka Productions and numerous American manga and anime publishers. She blogs about anime and manga for Tor.com, and wrote a bi-weekly column on manga, cosplay, fashion and otaku culture for Tokyopop.com (2005-2007). She has also worked as an Historical and Linguistic Consultant for FUNimation, and was a Mythology and Language Consultant for ADV Films (2005-9) and an Anime Network Field Representative (2004-6). Her work on manga has also brought her into the cosplay world, where she creates and competes, but usually runs, cosplay events. She has staffed many conventions, and for nine years has overseen cosplay events at Anime Boston, running their Masquerade and other events including her signature Cosplay Human Chess. Ada has made Anime Boston a trendsetter in the cosplay world, creating new events like the Anime Dating Game, and setting a record for the most cosplay events at any convention worldwide, with thirteen separate events and activities designed for types of costumers and cosplayers.