Edna Bonhomme is a critic, journalist, and historian of science. She is a 2026 finalist for the 2026 Nona Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, London Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Scientific American, and elsewhere. She is the author of A History of the World in Six Plagues (shortlisted for Best Science Book in Austria) and co-editor of After Sex. Her book, Tending to Our Wounds, will be published in July 2026. She has been based in Berlin since 2017.
From Haiti to Harlem, Egypt to Germany, Tending to Our Wounds explores how healing from the legacies of colonialism, ongoing violence and racial capitalism must include resistance, reparations and reconciliation.
The German translation of A History of the World in Six Plagues (Eingesperrt und ausgegrenzt) has been shortlisted for the Best Science Book Prize in Austria.
A History of the World in Six Plagues examines the deep connection between contagion and confinement, taking readers on a journey across different places and times, from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania and from plantation-era America to today’s COVID-19-affected world. This is a vivid account of how we can be more humane.