Ada Palmer
Renaissance historian at the University of Chicago; author of Terra Ignota and Inventing the Renaissance.
At a glance
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- Ada Palmer is an American historian of the Renaissance and a science-fiction novelist.
- She is an associate professor at the University of Chicago, where she has taught from 2014.
- Her Terra Ignota series, starting with Too Like the Lightning (2016), was a 2022 Hugo finalist for Best Series.
- Inventing the Renaissance (2025) won the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Related Work.
Key facts
- Born
- 9 June 1981, Washington, D.C.1
- Education
- BA in history, Bryn Mawr College (2001); MA (2003) and PhD (2009) in history, Harvard1
- Academic
- Texas A&M University from 2009 to 2014; University of Chicago assistant professor from 2014 to 2018, then associate professor1
- Non-fiction
- Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance (2014); Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age (2025)1
- Fiction
- Terra Ignota: Too Like the Lightning (2016), Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle and Perhaps the Stars1
- Awards
- John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2017); Compton Crook Award (2017); Quantrell Award (2021); Hugo Award for Best Related Work (2026)1
Links
Sources
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