Daniel Hudon

Originally from Canada, I'm a lecturer in astronomy at Metropolitan College and in Summer Term. Formerly, I taught in the Writing Program and the Core curriculum, and I was the faculty organizer for BU's EcoFest; I still maintain the EcoFest blog Eco-Now – please drop by. I also write short fiction, nonfiction and poetry. You can contact me at hudon "at" bu.edu. News (January 26, 2014): Watch for new work now or soon to be appearing in The Little Paxuxent Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Science Creative Quarterly, {Ex}tinguished and {Ex}tinct: An Anthology of Things that No Longer {Ex}ist, and Written River. (links to follow.) News (June 13, 2013): Watch for new work appearing soon in: · GoNomad, Spork, Toad, Canary and Dark Matter. A new travel story has appeared in Outside In (see below). Two of my humorous Instructions appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe Ideas section in summer 2012 (see below). I'm the 2011 winner of the Tiferet Nonfiction prize! My essay, Vietnam: Calling All Wandering Souls, has been published on their website. A chapbook of some of my recent poetry and prose, called "Evidence for Rainfall," has been brought out by Pen and Anvil Press, available on their webpage or from me. This publication coincided with my invited reading at the Axiom Art Gallery on May 13, 2010. My first book, The Bluffer's Guide to the Cosmos", was published by Oval Books (UK) in April, 2009. It is available on Amazon and by special order at your local bookstore (ISBN:978-1-903096-42-0). Feel free also to email me about it at the address above. Here is a short Youtube trailer I made for the book and here is the intro to the book. Public Presentations I'm giving a lecture on Reimagining Nature Through Poetry at the Medford Public Library Wednesday June 19, 2013 at 7pm. Admission is free. In 2010 and 2011, I gave a series of five public presentations on the topic of Cosmic Perspective on Celebrity Cruises on two different cruise ships, the Celebrity Eclipse and the Celebrity Mercury. The individual presentations were: Finding our Place in Space, Finding our Place in Time, Transits and Cosmic Perspective, The Bluffer's Guide to the Cosmos and Biodiversity and You. Fifty to one hundred people attended each and all were well received. Contact me if you're interested in hearing more about my presentations about science or writing or both. Here are some of my recent writing links: Fiction · Experience a Parisian Rendezvous at Prime Numbers. · Swink, published a bio-history of Rene Albert, "the world's only surrealist scientist". A Borgesian fantasy, "Borges and You", was published in Qwerty in Fall 2009. Check out some some microfictions, including "A History of Laughter, A History of Teenagers, and Bedtime at Our House" at Glossolalia. Read about "Whale Migration"at Rumble. Read the despatch from "The Center of the Galaxy" at The Charles River Journal. Read "The Wave: A Review" and "The Last Days of My Youth" at Neon. A new story, "A Report on the New String Theory Library," has appeared in an anthology of stories about string theory, Riffing on Strings, published by Scriblerus Press. You can read an excerpt, including my story, at the publisher's website. The anthology received a very favorable review in New Scientist, reprinted in the blog 3 Quarks Daily and also available as a pdf tearsheet. My story is also featured on the New Scientist site. Enjoy The Life of Dreams in The Avatar Review. Have an espresso at The Four O'Clock Cafe at The Blue Print Review. See what the fuss is about at Cezanne's Carrot with The Birth of the Universe Check out Neon (UK), Issue 12 for A Short Course on Cloud Physics (Alas, you'll have to buy the magazine, but it's a nice little package.) Travel · Need some, Costa Rica Travel Recommendations? Find them in Issue 14 of Outside In magazine. · Read my prize-winning essay, Vietnam: Calling All Wandering Souls, in Tiferet. · Picture Guatamala in Gulf Stream. · A travel essay called, "How to Cross the Street in Hanoi," was published in The Nashwaak Review, in 2009. · A travel essay called, "A Gap in the Indian Afternoon," was published in Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature in 2009. Read Laos: Staring at You in Two Hawks Quarterly. Travel to the Bottom of Laos, with photos, at Asian Cha. Relive a breakup story from Bangkok (from Eclectica): Another Night in Bangkok Go on a wild-goose chase in Bangkok (from Utne): Excuse Me, Sir Take a meditation lesson in Bangkok while Traveling, Traveling, Traveling in Buddhist Thailand in The Wanderlust Review. Experience some Cuban Episodes from the Journal of the Core Curriculum Go to an Indian classical music concert in Delhi (originally published in Grain Magazine and reprinted in the Journal of the Core Curriculum): Delhi Raga Travel On the Road to Dharamsala at Pology Magazine. A travel essay, "Rajasthan: The Mirages of Life," has appeared in issue 49 of Bayou Magazine. Miscellaneous Nonfiction · Follow Basho and the Grebes at Toad. · Read the story of The Ivory Bill Woodpecker and Labrador Duck at Canary. · Experience The Funeral Bell at The Tower Journal. · Read about the The Meaning of Life at Word Riot. · Explore "The Geography of Pain" in a personal essay published in the anthology Migraine Expressions. Science and Science Humor So you've always wanted to build a cosmos?. Get started at the Boston Sunday Globe Ideas. Going into space? Here's how to fight depression? at the Boston Sunday Globe Ideas. Bat about the idea of How to Think About Eternity at The Science Creative Quarterly. Investigate Ten Simple Science Experiments to Test the Universality of Poetry at The Quarc Issue. Start a big foolish project: Instructions on How to Build a Galaxy at Slow Trains. Ponder the Instructions on How to Build a Cloud at Cafe Irreal; · Learn How to Build a Planet in Twelve Easy Steps at Opium Magazine; · Learn the Twelve Tips to Avoid Depression While Living at the Space Station at Defenestration Magazine; A feature article, "How Johannes Kepler Revolutionized Astronomy," appeared in the January 2009 issue of Astronomy. A short piece, "We are Stardust: Spread the Word," appeared in the August, 2007, issue of Sky and Telescope. A review of the book "Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality," by Alastair Rae, is online from the site of the Canadian Journal of Physics. A semi-popular article on the transits of Venus reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: A (Not So) Brief History of the Transits of Venus. Poetry Three Poems after Magritte appeared in Spork . The Antigonish Review published a poem of mine called "The Burgess Shale." Clarion published a poem called Tracks. Two poems from my Magritte project were published in The Meadowland Review. Three Poems after Magritte appeared in Spork . Four poems appeared in the summer (volume 5, #2) issue of The Wilderness House Literary Review. Several of my poems based on the work of surrealist painter Rene Magritte appeared in the Hiss Quarterly, which went defunct in 2009. Another has appeared in Diagram.