Writing on Outer Space
Ever since profiling in the New Yorker the extraordinary Australian space archaeologist Alice Gorman in 2017, I’ve been passionate about thinking and writing about outer space. The films I've made with Rowena Potts and our Archival Futures Collective invite viewers to think (and feel) about environmental ethics in outer space.
I’ve also been part of the group who has authored a Declaration of the Rights of the Moon. Read more about the Declaration here and here. And also here.
Below is a selection of my long-form essays on space themes.
“Everlasting Free Fall,” Alexander, February 2021
This piece was published by the narrative storytelling app Alexander, where you can listen to Vanessa Kirby (of The Crown) read the full essay, and watch the accompanying short film.
Winner of the 2021 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing
“Mining the Moon,” The Monthly, July 2019
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Winner of the 2020 Australian Museum Eureka Prize
“True Grit,” WIRED, May 2019
An essay about the late and great Moon dust scientist Brian O’Brien, and why the Moon’s environments are much more complex and vulnerable than anybody could have expected.
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Winner of the 2020 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing
“Elon Musk and the Failure of Our Imagination in Space,” newyorker.com, June 2018
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“Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos,” newyorker.com, September 2017
A profile of Alice Gorman, Australian space archaeologist.
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“Pale Blue Dot,” The Monthly, January 2021
"Making Kin With the Cosmos," part of a series of essays contemplating the question How do we understand the Cosmos as our home? published in April, 2021 by The Center for Humans & Nature (in Chicago, USA):
I have an essay about the Moon, titled "Our Sister Satellite," in The Center for Humans & Nature's Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations book series - Vol. 1: PLANET (Cosmic/Elemental/Planetary Kinship) [Edited by Gavin Van Horn, Robin Wall Kimmerer & John Hausdoerffer)
"Friday essay: Love and loss in outer space - Ceridwen Dovey on how scientists feel about space objects," The Conversation, August 2024
Only the Astronauts featured in ABC RN's The Book Show episode for Science Week 2024
For Science Week, The Book Show goes intergalactic in a star themed episode. Ceridwen Dovey, Alicia Sometimes, Nardi Simpson, Max Barry and Emily St John Mandel explore how celestial tales reveal deep truths about our lives on earth.
From the fabulously weird stories about space junk in Only the Astronauts (Ceridwen Dovey) to the star dust fuelled poetry of Stellar Atmospheres (Alicia Sometimes) we pay tribute to the connections between the night sky and literature.