Identifying the Pathogen

A hybrid collection blending historical research and contemporary essays to consider the nature of oppressive marriage and gender inequity.

Composed as a lab notebook recording various surgeries, autopsies, and experiments, Identifying the Pathogen tells the story of a scientist on an obsessive quest to document an ailment that resists classification. The book considers the body in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, woven through with the story of Anna Morandi Manzolini--an eighteenth-century Italian anatomist and artist who struggled to support a husband suffering from depression--as well as several essays detailing accounts of a ruptured appendix, a splintered cello, and an ill-fated rock climbing excursion.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Tupelo Press
Published: 02/19/2026
ISBN: 9781961209442
Pages: 132
Weight: 1.00lbs