This intensive workshop will be limited to five experienced science writers who have an idea for a book they want to write. We'll meet each day during the week and spend about half the time on the arcane art of writing proposals and the other half talking about what makes a good science book. If you'd like to apply, please send me a letter about yourself and the book idea that has been nagging at you. Those who are accepted will be asked to submit a rough draft of a book proposal, which we will try to fine-tune. (Submissions will be photocopied and passed around so that we can discuss them. I'll also pass around examples of proposals, including one of my own, which have become books.) Of course, we'll also join in many of the other sessions during the week and, if you're game, get in some hiking.
Everyone should come to the workshop having read or reread what I think is the finest science-writing ever: Part 1 of Horace Freeland Judson's The Eighth Day of Creation. I was sorry (and dumfounded) to learn that the Simon & Schuster edition of this classic is out of print. Cold Spring Harbor labs has reissued it. The price ($40 in paperback!) may seem extravagant, but I have been told by someone at Cold Spring that theirs is a very fine edition with 46 pages of new material. You should be able to find the book in any large library. Powell's in Portland, Oregon, lists a used copy in their catalog. And you can order the British edition from the Internet Bookshop in England for £12.