Books

Luminaries

I’m delighted to share that my full-length collection was published in September by Milk & Cake Press. Luminaries is about the women astronomers who worked at the Harvard Observatory from the 1880s through the mid-29th century, making significant discoveries about the compositions of the universe. The book focuses on five of the most prominent astronomers: Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Antonia Maury, Henrietta Leavitt, and Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, and their financial mentor, Anna Draper, whose husband Henry was a pioneer in astronomical photography. Draper funded the work of the women “computers” in honor of her husband.

I used letters, newspaper profiles, Cecelia Payne’s memoir, and Williamina Fleming’s month-long (!) diary as well as Dava Sobel’s wonderful history, The Glass Universe, as my source material, and then imagined into the emotional lives of these women. Harvard’s online archives were very helpful in finding some of these resources.

Luminaries can be purchased here: https://milkandcakepress.com/product/luminaries-by-kim-jacobs-beck/

If you’d be interested in reviewing it, I’d be grateful; please reach out using the Contact link.

Torch

I am thrilled to announce that my chapbook, Torch: Poems (2019) is now available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Kim+Jacobs-beck+torch&ref=nb_sb_noss Torch is filled with love poems–romantic love, familial love, and takes those relationships on directly and succinctly.

If you’d like to review the book, please let me know, or leave an Amazon review.