Siri Carpenter—The Best Science Stories and How They Work: A Collection with Commentary

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover of the book The Best Science Stories and How They Work: A Collection with Commentary by Siri Carpenter with the title in red, subtitle and editor’s name in black on a white background along with a blue rectangle resembling a microscope slide dotted with red circles of various sizes arranged in a Fibonacci spiral—a symbol of continuous growth—filled with small strings of letters awaiting the reader’s inspection.
Best Science Stories
THE BEST SCIENCE STORIES
AND HOW THEY WORK:
A COLLECTION WITH COMMENTARY
Siri Carpenter, Ed.
University of Chicago Press, July 21, 2026
Hardcover, $115, Paperback, $22.50, eBook, $12.50
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-0226848525
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0226830346
eBook ISBN-13: 978-0226830339

Carpenter reports:

One of my favorite parts of my role at The Open Notebook (TON) is that it gives me the opportunity to constantly immerse myself in powerful stories. Being the kind of nerd who loves to take things apart to find out what makes them work, I’ve always loved deconstructing stories to understand what makes them tick.

That was the impulse behind the Storygrams series of annotated stories at TON, which began with support from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. In editing those annotated pieces, I found that my own understanding of what makes a story great deepened tremendously. And the pieces proved to be extremely popular, both with people reading them for their own enjoyment and growth and with journalism instructors who incorporated them into their teaching.

Portrait photo of Siri Carpenter
Siri Carpenter
Photo by Beth Skogen
So I was delighted when my editor at the University of Chicago Press, Joe Calamia, with whom I was working on a second edition of TON’s book The Craft of Science Writing, suggested that we develop a book full of such annotated stories, alongside interviews with each of the stories’ writers. We envisioned a book that would appeal to anyone who takes joy in great science writing, as well as to writers and students who want to sharpen their own craft.

The process of choosing just 11 stories to include was agonizing. I started with a list of hundreds of candidate stories, and then started narrowing the list down to achieve a balance of topics, themes, authors, and publishers. Along the way, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded me a grant to help support the book’s development, which I used to pay permissions fees, compensate contributors, and support my own work on the project.

And then the fun part: Recruiting annotators and waiting for the magic to happen! And magic did happen. Editing these annotations and interviews was pure pleasure, and I just kept patting myself on the back for having chosen so many brilliant writers to work with. This book has been a source of joy and inspiration during a time when you can’t have too much of that.

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Siri Carpenter.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

Publication of NASW author reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of any publication or the ideas, values, or material contained within or espoused by authors or their books. We hope this column stimulates productive discussions on important topics now and in the future as both science and societies progress. We welcome your discussion in the comments section below.

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