about the author
Deborah Blum
Pultizer-Prize Winner and Author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Deborah Blum is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of five books, most recently The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, which was named as one of the top one hundred books of 2010 by Amazon. A highly acclaimed science journalist and former president of the National Association of Science Writers, Deborah is also co-editor of A Field Guide for Science Writers. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, optioned for film, and has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Slate, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Discover, and Health. She also writes about chemistry and culture for the Public Library of Science at her blog, Speakeasy Science.
Deborah is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches science writing, creative nonfiction, and literary journalism. Check out Deborah Blum’s Speakeasy Science blog here.
Press Links
"Chemical-free nonsense"
Los Angeles Times
"The Smell Of Fear: Fact or Fiction?"
WBUR's Here and Now
"UW Professor Blum Picked for Two Annual Best Science Writing Books"
Journal Sentinel Online
"Mind Reading: Everything You Wanted to Know About Poisoning"
TIME's Healthland
"A View to a Kill in the Morning: Carbon Dioxide"
Scientific American
"A Miracle Drug's Dark Side"
The Wall Street Journal
"Author Deborah Blum to Speak on Collision of Science, Society"
News Miner
"In Praise of Poison Ivy"
Los Angeles Times
"Making A List For Summer Science Reading"
NPR's "Talk of the Nation"
"Bring Back the Poison Squad"
Slate
The Poisoner's Handbook Review
The New York Times Book Review
"Murder by the Drop"
The New York Times Book Review
The Poisoner's Handbook Review
The Washington Post
Review of The Poisoner's Handbook
The Boston Globe
"Picking The Poison: The Story Of Forensic Medicine"
NPR's "All Things Considered"
"The Right Chemistry"
Los Angeles Times
"The Poisoner's Handbook: CSI's Jazz Age Roots"
NPR
"Poison and Progress"
The Wall Street Journal
"Poisoner's Handbook digs into history for roots of forensic science"
The Denver Post
"Science And Crime Mix In The Poisoner’s Handbook"
NPR's "Talk of the Nation"
Review of The Poisoner's Handbook
San Francisco Chronicle
"Forensic science was not always CSI-style teamwork"
The Guardian
The Poisoner's Handbook Review
Kirkus Reviews
Book Review: The Poisoner's Handbook
The Dallas Morning News
"CSI: The Beginning (Part I)"
Seattle's KUOW Radio
"CSI: The Beginning (Part 2)"
Seattle's KUOW Radio
"The Sinister Side of Chemistry"
The Scientific American's Science Talk Podcast
An Interview with Deborah Blum
NPR's "Science Friday"
Review of The Poisoner's Handbook
Newsday
"Forensic pioneers follow the trail of a silent killer"
BookPage
"Readers, pick your poison"
MSNBC
"The Chemist's War"
Slate
"Origins of Forensic Medicine"
Coast to Coast AM
Review of The Poisoner's Handbook
Bookslut.com
"The Criminalist"
Barnes and Nobles Review
"The Poisoner's Handbook Turns a Tumbler of Whiskey Into a Game of Russian Roulette"
PopMatters
"Communicating Science In A Post-Newspaper Era"
NPR's "Talk of the Nation"
"Popular Science"
The Daily Page
"Will Science Take the Field?"
The New York Times
"Who Killed Fido? We All Did"
The New York Times
"Solving for XX"
The Boston Globe
Featured Book
The Poisoner's Handbook
“The Poisoner’s Handbook is an inventive history that, like arsenic mixed into blackberry pie, goes down with ease.”
—The New York Times Book Review
Speaking Topics
- The Poisoner’s Handbook
- Life on a Poisonous Planet
- Supernatural Science
- Communicating Science
- The Art and Craft of Literary Journalism
View Topic Descriptions »
Speaking Topics — Deborah Blum
The Poisoner’s Handbook
We take for granted our CSI-style world in which forensic scientists work hand in hand with police detections. But forensic science is an astonishingly new field—the first formal training in this country didn’t begin until the 1930s—and scientists didn’t really become powerful police allies until that time. Learn about the invention of forensic toxicology, the crusading scientists who changed the way we catch killers, and experiment yourself with being a 1920s forensic scientist determined to solve some of history’s most puzzling murder cases.
Life on a Poisonous Planet
Through a user’s guide to our chemical world, explore the everyday chemistry of our lives, what makes a poison, which household compounds we should treat with caution, and which we can safely embrace.
Supernatural Science
As the author of Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, Deborah traces the history of scientific efforts to prove supernatural events and what that research reveals about topics ranging from telepathy to ghosts to conversations with the dead.
Communicating Science
The importance of improving public understanding of science in a world in which issues like global climate change and the use of vaccine injections require a common sense understanding of how science works.
The Art and Craft of Literary Journalism
Workshops or lectures on using literary techniques to enhance journalistic storytelling from an award-winning literary journalist and experienced instructor, both in the United States and abroad.
Please contact us for booking requirements and availability.