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I’m pleased to announce that Dr. Jennifer Michael Hecht has agreed to join The Secular Outpost as a contributor. Dr. Hecht is the author of three history books and two volumes of poetry and she is currently serving as one of the five judges for the Nonfiction category of the 2010 National Book Award. Her bestseller Doubt: A History demonstrates a long, strong history of religious doubt. Hecht’s The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology won the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s 2004 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award “for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.” Her most recent book, The Happiness Myth brings a skeptical eye to modern wisdom about the good life. Hecht’s poetry books are The Next Ancient World which won three national poetry awards, and Funny which Publisher’s Weekly called “one of the most original and entertaining books of the year.” Her prose and poetry appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Hecht earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Columbia University in 1995 and now teaches in the MFA program of Columbia University and The Graduate Writing Program of The New School University.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Hecht!