Literary Work
In 1981, Lightman began publishing essays about science, the human side of science, and the "mind of science", beginning with Smithsonian and moving to Science 82, The New Yorker, and other magazines. Since that time, Lightman's essays, short fiction, and reviews have also appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review, Dædalus, Discover, Exploratorium, Granta, Harper's Magazine, Harvard Magazine, Inc Technology, Nature, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Science 86, The Sciences, Story, Technology Review, and World Monitor.
Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 PEN New England / Boston Globe Winship Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Book Club. The novel has been used in numerous colleges and universities, in many cases for university-wide adoptions in "common-book" programs, and is one of the mostly widely used texts in American colleges today. Lightman's novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award in fiction and has been adopted by high school teachers of Advanced Placement English. In 2007 Lightman released his most recent novel, Ghost, an examination of the dichotomies of the physical world and the spiritual world, scepticism and faith, the natural and the supernatural, and science and religion. In 2009, Lightman published his first volume of poetry, a book-length narrative in verse titled "Song of Two Worlds."
More than two dozen independent theatrical and musical productions have been based on Einstein's Dreams, including a production at Chicago's National Pastime Theater in 2000, produced and directed by Patrizia Acerra and Dawn Arnold; a production at Paradise Theater in New York in 2001, produced and directed by Paul Stancato and Brian Rhinehart; a production at the Culture Project Theater in New York in 2003, directed by Rebecca Holderness; a production at the People's Branch Theater in Nashville in 2003, adapted by Brian Niece and David Alford, directed by David Alford; a musical production at the Martin Segal Theater of CUNY in New York in 2003, produced by Brian Schwartz with music and lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Lessner; a production by the Underground Railway Theater in Boston in 2006; and a production by the University of Memphis in 2006, under the direction of Gloria Baxter; a musical composition titled "In This World" by Paul Hoffman in 2000 and performed by the Silverwood Trio on their own CD; and a musical composition titled "When Einstein Dreams" by Nando Michelin in 2003 and performed by the Nando Michelin Group on a Double Times Record CD. A major musical adaptation is now being planned for the Prince Theater in Philadelphia, directed by Marjorie Samov.
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