Susan M Gaines is an American writer. She is the author of the novels ''Accidentals'' (2020) and ''

Carbon Dreams ''Carbon Dreams'' was Susan M. Gaines's first novel, published in 2000 and reissued in 2022. It was an early example of realist climate fiction, "science in fiction," and what is now known as Lab lit. Synopsis Set in the 1980s, the story f ...

'' (2001), and co-author with

Geoffrey Eglinton Geoffrey Eglinton, FRS (1 November 1927 – 11 March 2016) was a British chemist and emeritus professor and senior research fellow in earth sciences at the University of Bristol. Education Eglinton was educated at Sale Grammar School and the Un ...

and Jurgen Rullkötter of the science book '' Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History'' (2009). Her short stories have been nominated twice for the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

. She is a former fellow of the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study in Germany. In 2018, she was awarded a

Suffrage Science Award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

for women in science and science writers who have inspired others.

Background

Gaines originally trained as a chemist and oceanographer, and received a master's degree from

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

in 1987. She has published peer-reviewed papers in ''

The Journal of Organic Chemistry ''The Journal of Organic Chemistry'', colloquially known as ''JOC'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal for original contributions of fundamental research in all branches of theory and practice in organic and bioorganic chemistry. It is publ ...

'' and the ''

Journal of Chromatography A The ''Journal of Chromatography A'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers in analytical chemistry, with a focus on techniques and methods used for the separation and identification of mixtures. Indexed by ISI the jour ...

'', as well as essays and short stories in an assortment of journals, literary magazines, and anthologies (''Econ Papers'', ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'', and ''

The North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...

''). She founded the "Fiction Meets Science" research and fellowship program at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

Writing career

Gaines began publishing short stories in the early 1990s. Her short story ''The Mouse'' was selected for ''The Best of the West 5,'' one in a series of annual anthologies of short stories, published annually from 1988 to 1992. Her novel ''

'' was published in 2001. Set in the early 1980s, it tells the story of a woman who discovers a way to study climate in the distant past that may have relevance for the climate of the future, and about the scientific, ethical and personal controversies that she inadvertently becomes embroiled in. Elizabeth Wilson, writing in ''Chemical and Engineering News'', called it a "step forward in the evolution of science-in-fiction.... A remarkable job of conveying what it's really like to be a scientist, and to make scientific discoveries—not in the blink of an eye, as television or movies would have it, but with gradually shifting insight." It is considered an early contribution to the

Lab lit Lab lit (also "lablit") is a loosely defined genre of fiction, distinct from science fiction, that centers on realistic portrayals of scientists and on science as a profession. Definition Unlike science fiction, lab lit is generally set in some ...

genre. Gaines's 2020 novel ''Accidentals'' is the story of an Uruguayan-American family, noted for its "melding of sensual landscapes with ruminations on political history and environmental devastation" and "critique of globalization." Like ''Carbon Dreams'', it has been recognized as a "rare" and "well-written" example of a realist novel about science and compared to the work of

Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the Univers ...

. A work of non-fiction '' Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History'', published in 2009, provides an up-to-date survey of the interdisciplinary field of organic geochemistry, using the history of discovery, from early experiments in the 1930s to modern areas of research, to make the material accessible to students and scientists in different fields.Bushaw-Newton, Karen. ''BioScience'' September 2009 / Vol. 59 No. 8

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaines, Susan M. American non-fiction writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American geochemists Women earth scientists American women non-fiction writers American women novelists 21st-century American women