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.

Jennifer Militello is the poet laureate of New Hampshire. She is the author of the memoir Knock Wood and five collections of poetry, including, most recently, The Pact. Militello’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Poetry, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, and Poetry Wales. Her poem “Mansplaining” is recited by high school students across the nation each year as part of the Poetry Out Loud national arts education program. She has taught at Brown University, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the Rhode Island School of Design, and is currently a faculty member in the MFA program at New England College.