The Universe in Verse

Luminous … The essays and poetry reflect and refract one another to create a dialogue–sometimes wildly abstract, sometimes quietly witty–that will shed new light on ‘the beauty in reality laid bare.’“–Shelf Awareness, starred reviewLike the phenomena described, this slender volume is a wonder.–Publishers WeeklyA feast of stories, ideas, and beauty for the mind and heart.–KirkusA rigorous, interdisciplinary delight.–Kara Lewis, Read PoetryWith creativity, verve, and intention, Popova, erudite and clarion, beautifully accomplishes her mission to inspire wonder.–Booklist“This book is a wonder. Science writing so often negates the inherent wonder of science, which comes so brilliantly alive here. Something bursts open in the mind. And let me say this: Maria Popova has the rare gift of starting a sentence and leaving you in trance by its end. I’d read anything she writes.”–Jad Abumrad, creator, Radiolab

Maria Popova thinks and writes about our search for meaning sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children’s books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian, born in 2006 under the outgrown name Brain Pickings and included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials, author of Figuring and The Snail with the Right Heart, and maker of The Universe in Verse a charitable celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry.