The January 2011 issue of World Literature Today, guest edited and introduced by Pireeni Sundaralingam, includes a symposium on The Crosstalk between Science and Literature:
Physicist Alan Lightman and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein discuss how they devise “emotional experiments” in their fiction in order to probe the limits of rational thought. [Full text online]
In a provocative essay, poet and cognitive scientist Pireeni Sundaralingam asks, Are science and poetry inherently at odds with each other? [Full text online]
Authors Suzanne Lummis, Philip Metres, Vincenzo Della Mea, and Tone Hødnebø conduct playful experiments in new poems tied to the issue’s theme.
Berlin-based architect Eric Ellingsen co-opts the repeating structure of the poetic villanelle to remap space and to explore how literature might inform urban design.
Welsh poet-physician Dannie Abse traces the intersections of poetry and medicine in his own life and work.
Playwright Kenneth Lin discusses theater’s ability to convey the grandeur of scientific discovery. [Full text online]
