A History of the World in Six Plagues
A note on about publication, promotion, and gratitude
I’m writing to inform you about my upcoming book, A History of the World in Six Plagues, which will be published on March 11, 2025, by Simon & Schuster (North America), Dialogue Books (UK), and Ullstein Verlag (Germany) to mark the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown. A History of the World in Six Plagues provides a unique perspective on the deep connection between contagion and confinement through six diseases and seven case studies. It explores the histories of cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, sleeping sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19 while also recounting my early personal experience with medical confinement and its influence on my worldview. The book examines humanity’s approach to pandemic diseases, taking readers on a journey across different places and times, from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania and plantation-era America to today’s COVID-19-affected world. It reveals shocking truths about the patterns of discrimination in response to disease, highlighting the current global health crisis.
Since its conception in 2020, this book’s emergence has been a labor of love and part of my curiosity and growth as a writer who wants to unravel the beauty and wonders of how science impacts society. Given this, I would appreciate your help spreading the word, generating early sales figures, and letting people know about the book. Here are several things you can do.
You can preorder my book here. You can also ask at your local bookstore or your favorite online retailer to pre-order it. This is especially helpful for first-time authors.
For those who write for magazines or newspapers, please pitch to your editor or colleague to write a book review. If you want a review copy, please contact Shida Carr at Simon & Schuster if you’re based in North America or Hannah Chukwu at Dialogue Books if you’re in Europe.
Please attend my book talk if you live in Miami or New York City. I will hold events in Miami on 5 March at Books and Books and in New York City on 20 March at 6:30 PM at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (The New York Public Library). Both events will occur during my month-long visit to the United States (late February to late March).
I would love to make a guest appearance or be interviewed if you host a podcast or radio show. I can do recordings throughout 2025, before or after the March 2025 publication date.
I would love to participate in (virtual) conversations with public libraries, labor unions (medical workers), art spaces, museums, and universities. However, I can also hold in-person events in European cities connected to Berlin by train. Let me know if you have ideas on this front.
In the meantime, I would be so grateful if you could recommend the book to people in your life (relatives, coworkers, pen-pals, editors, etc.). You can promote the book on social media, in newsletters, nominate me for a prize, etc.
As you know, I am a contributing writer for Frieze Magazine, meaning I have been writing profiles and essays about art exhibitions and artists in Western Europe. Still, I have also written features about COVID-19 outbreaks in meat factories in West Germany and what it would take for Haiti to have a Green New Deal. In addition, my essays have been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The London Review of Books, and The Nation, among others. I am incredibly grateful to the editors that I have been working with, people who trusted me to write about epidemics, life, and art: David & Atossa at the Nation, Jess at the Baffler, Mariya & Birce at Al Jazeera, Tom at the London Review of Books, Angela (formerly at WIRED), Eric (formerly at Esquire), Clare at the Guardian, and Vanessa, Chloe, Angel, & Terrence at Frieze. (The list goes on but will have to be cut short for space.)
I feel immense gratitude for being part of the National Writers Union labor union and for some of my union members' organizing better working conditions for journalists and writers. As a member of the Author’s Guild, the National Association of Science Writers, and the National Book Critics Circle, I will continue learning about the literary craft from professional writers. A History of the World in Six Plagues has also been made possible by the material support from grants and fellowships that I received, including, most recently, Baldwin for the Arts, the Camargo Foundation, the Robert Silvers Foundation Grant for Works in Progress, and the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Grant.
Finally, I am grateful to my agent, Ian Bonaparte, at Janklow & Nesbitt, for the patience of my editor, Nick Ciani—as well as everyone working with him, notably Hannah Frankel, Abby Mohr, Hannah Chukwu, Sharmaine Lovegrove, Shida Carr, and many others—for all their efforts; One Signal/Simon & Schuster, Dialogue Books, and Ullstein Verlag for believing in my project. Similarly, none of this could have happened without my friends, comrades, students, collaborators, fellow feminists, and Substack subscribers (that’s you!).
Thank you for your attention, and I want to express my gratitude for your support.
Excited to hear you at Books and Books !!
Congratulations! Publishing a book is an enormous achievement, and I hope you'll be able to take a moment to celebrate it.
Can't wait to read the book too!