Ada Palmer (born June 9, 1981) is an American historian and writer and winner of the 2017

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

. Her first novel '' Too Like the Lightning'' was published in May 2016. The work has been well received by critics and was a finalist for the

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,00 ...

Early life and education

The daughter of computer engineer Douglas Palmer and artist Laura Higgins Palmer, Ada was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

but grew up in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

where she attended The Key School. Following her undergraduate education beginning at age 15 for two years at

Bard College at Simon's Rock Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a private residential liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is a unit of Bard College, which is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The school is ...

and then transferring to

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

, she obtained a doctorate at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Academic career

Following a stint at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, Palmer began teaching at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. As a scholar, Palmer researches and teaches about the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

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. 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. Palmer co-authored ''The Recovery of Ancient Philosophy in the Renaissance: A Brief Guide'' with

James Hankins James Hankins (born 1955) is an intellectual historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance. He is the General Editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library and the Associate Editor of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum. He is a pro ...

in 2008. Her own first book, ''Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance'', was published in 2014. Palmer holds that the

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

poem ''

De rerum natura ''De rerum natura'' (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius ( – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7 ...

'', 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 Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...

and

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...

, because of the ways in which his theories helped them create an ethics working ''per se'', without any external, godly influence.

Fictional work

''Terra Ignota''

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 The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

. It has been described as a

rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abili ...

adjacent book, a work influenced both by science-fiction and historical genres, a fact the author has confirmed. The novel won the 2017

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best English language first novel of the year in the field of science fiction, fantasy, or horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society at their annual science fiction convention, Baltic ...

for the best first novel in the genre published during the previous year. The series has four novels: # '' Too Like the Lightning'' (2016) # '' Seven Surrenders'' (2017) # '' The Will to Battle'' (2017) # '' Perhaps the Stars'' (2021)

References

External links

"Fiction and History: Narratives, Contexts and Imagination"
by Ada Palmer, Jane Dailey, Ghenwa Hayek, Paola Iovene, David Perry. ''Chicago Journal of History'', Spring 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Ada 1981 births Living people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American women academics American science fiction writers Bryn Mawr College alumni Harvard University alumni People from Annapolis, Maryland University of Chicago faculty 20th-century American historians Historians of the Renaissance John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winners Novelists from Illinois American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers People from Washington, D.C. Filkers Historians from Maryland