My book, The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie, is now available in North America, UK, and Europe wherever you get your hardcovers, ebooks, and audiobooks. I encourage you to shop your local indie, use Bookshop for ebooks, and Libro for audiobooks. There are signed copies of the hardcover at Water Street Books and Loyalty Books while supplies last.

Recently, I finished a three week marathon book tour across the United States that at various points had me getting on flights at 7 am or earlier several days in a row. Which is to say, it was exhausting (and my body collapsed a bit after). It was also invigorating (and I’m recovering). In every city, I saw family and friends who had taken time out of their busy schedule to come see me. In every city, I met fans of my writing who told me about how it had changed their lives.

Memories that will stay with me: Meeting the woman who drove from Montreal to Philadelphia just to hear me in conversation with Airea Matthews (watch us here) — and the incredible friend who drove with her. Meeting the enby poet in San Francisco who told me I am their favorite writer (wow, I will work on living up to that)! Meeting the woman in Portland who told me that she had quit physics and college because of how unwelcome she felt in the classroom, but after hearing me talk, she was going to go back and chase her physics dreams.

I made two national bestseller lists in the first week: Indie Bookstores and USA Today. I also made the Los Angeles Times regional bestseller list during the week I was in town. In addition to a wonderful crowd of readers, I know I have booksellers around the country to thank for deciding that my book was worth putting out for their customers. Making a science book — especially one about physics written from a Black and queer perspective — a bestseller of any kind is no small feat.

Even as there was a signing line in every city, there were also people who left without a book in hand. I hope some of them are getting it from the library or planning to grab it if there is a paperback edition (sales are robust enough that I’m feeling optimistic about that, but there are no guarantees). But also, one of the things I (re-)learned while on book tour is that a lot of my work as a science communicator is helping people who think science can never be for them consider the possibility that in fact science can speak to them in a way that feels spiritually, socially, and politically meaningful.

I still get questions on social media about whether my books are for general audiences or just for physicists. Each time I get this question, it’s a bit jolting. Do historians get this question when they publish a trade book that’s being broadly marketed? I don’t think so. But I can’t really fault the people asking this question because their queries are a reflection of a broad science communication failure. No matter what the book description says, our culture has programmed people to believe that physics is for physicists and physics nerds only. It is also the case that sometimes science writers only write with certain readers as part of their imagined audience. It’s not necessarily because they mean to be unwelcoming but they do have a limited perspective on what it means to be welcoming.

Here’s the thing:

My books are not textbooks. They are books that belong in the non-fiction section of your favorite regular degular bookstore — not the campus textbook section. I very specifically write my books with non-scientists in mind. Why? Because the question of “What is space-time?” doesn’t belong only to scientists. It belongs to everyone who has ever wondered about the bigger picture. Why are there galaxies? What are people made of? How did earth get here? Why is the sky blue? Is what we can see all there is? These are all questions about the rules that govern space-time and everything inside of it. (Emphatic NO to that last question! It’s a lot of evidently invisible dark matter and vacuum/dark energy out there. What? That’s why you should read the books!)

In various ways, I tried to answer this question for audiences as well as during media stops, whether that was on The Stacks with Traci Thomas, where we talked A LOT about meeting the science anxious where they are and why we should normalize bringing up quantum field theory in conversation:

on Hysteria, in conversation with Erin Ryan:

on Science Quickly at Scientific American:

on Factually! with Adam Conover:

or on Poured Over with Miwa Messer:

I also went on a very cool romance novel podcast called Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and came out of it with a couple of helpful reading suggestions that I will be studying for craft.

THE BOOK IS LITERALLY MAKING INROADS IN THE ROMANCE DEPARTMENT! Which is to say, the cosmos touches on every aspect of our universe (quite literally), including you and whatever you think your interests are. It’s written with you in mind — especially if you’re a non-specialist.

You don’t have to take my word for it! Helpfully, the book has had some nice reviews and write-up’s in The Boston Globe, Science Magazine, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, NPR, and Time Magazine (among others that I’ve mentioned in this newsletter before).

Anyway, hopefully we will get to the point where people will stop asking me whether the book is for them. I want us to get to the point where they know it is their entitlement to expect that it is. And if this doesn’t motivate you to pick up my book (please pick up my book!!), I hope you’ll consider grabbing someone else’s. But the universe is yours to know, just as much as it is mine. The fact that I spent a year taking quantum field theory doesn’t make it more mine than yours.

I hope you’ll read. And if you like listening to music while you read. Here’s an album I listened to a lot while I was writing The Edge of Space-Time:

And here’s a soundtrack I made to go with the book.