The Science of Hope

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John Fisher

A close-up of Kimberly M. Blaeser.

Kimberly M. Blaeser

Hope isn’t always easy. In Ancient Light, a 2026 National Book Foundation Science + Literature selection, poet Kimberly Blaeser considers the long shadow of colonial violence that still affects Indigenous communities today. Grounded in Anishinaabe knowledge and place, the poems hold grief and connection at the same time. During this Wisconsin Book Festival and Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters event, Blaeser will read from the collection and discuss the poems with prize-winning poet and University of Montana professor Sean Hill. 

media release: This event is free and open to the public, however we do ask that you register in advance.

Ancient Light by Kimberly Blaeser, a 2026 National Book Foundation Science + Literature selected title, collects poems that trace the many crises Indigenous communities navigate—from centuries of violence to the COVID-19 pandemic—alongside the ancestral knowledge that allows for a reclamation of language, of land, and of healing. 

With vision and resilience, Kimberly Blaeser’s poetry layers together past, present, and futures. Against a backdrop of pandemic loss and injustice, MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women), hidden graves at Native American boarding schools, and destructive environmental practices, Blaeser’s innovative poems trace pathways of kinship, healing, and renewal. They celebrate the solace of natural spaces through sense-laden geo-poetry and picto-poems. With an Anishinaabe sensibility, her words and images invoke an ancient belonging and voice the deep relatedness she experiences in her familiar watery regions of Minnesota.

The collection invites readers to see with a new intimacy the worlds they inhabit. Blaeser brings readers to the brink, immerses them in the darkest regions of the Anthropocene, in the dangerous fallacies of capitalism, and then seeds hope. Ultimately, as the poems enact survivance, they reclaim Indigenous stories and lifeways.

Join Blaeser for a reading and conversation on the relationship between poetry, science, and the world around us. Moderated by Sean Hill, poet, professor, and 2026 Science + Literature selection committee member.

Science + Literature: The Science of Hope is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

The National Book Foundation's Science + Literature program identifies three books annually, across genres, that deepen readers’ understanding of science and technology, and focuses on highlighting the diversity of voices in contemporary science and technology writing. Science + Literature is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Read more about the Science + Literature program on the National Book Foundation's website