The Forgotten Teachers

Interweaving science and storytelling, spirituality and art, a neuroscientist and an artist guide us toward a deeper understanding of how radically interconnected all of life is.

Starting from science, while reaching for spiritual truth, The Forgotten Teachers charts the evolution of life on Earth under the mentorship of six teachers: Ocean, Air, Theia (through collision with this planet, Earth was set on its tilt), Sun, Plants, and Symbionts. Ideas from the field of evolutionary biology, accompanied by watercolor illustrations, guide this factual yet mytho-poetic exploration of life. Motivated by their shared concern over the severance of science from the sacred, and humans from their place within nature, Isett and Biçen set out to write a scientific wonder story for our times—to enchant readers with the strangeness and beauty of evolutionary biology, while reintegrating us into the natural world. As Rachel Carson did in her time and as Wendell Berry has done as a poet and essayist across the years, Isett writes with precision and urgency to remind us that we participate in a story that is far larger than ourselves, and that to see ourselves more truly would be to see the many ways in which we belong to the molecules and mysteries of the living world.

Author Biography

Brian Isett is a poet and scientist based in Pittsburgh. His first book of poetry, Grid Poems (Vol. I), reached an international audience over Ello and quickly sold out through the New Museum and Printed Matter in New York, and Motto Books in Berlin. In the field of neuroscience, Isett has authored high profile research articles in areas ranging from tactile perception to Parkinson’s disease. His awards include the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the National Institute of Health NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship, the George Harmon Coxe Award for Fiction, and the Arthur Lynn Andrews Fiction Prize. Isett holds a BS in Biology from Cornell University and a PhD in Neuroscience from UC Berkeley. He is currently a data scientist at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Claudia Biçen is a British American artist who uses illustration and storytelling to explore ideas about what it means to be mortal beings in a vast and mysterious universe. Her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (London), and the National Arts Club (New York). Biçen holds a BA in philosophy and psychology from the University of Oxford and a MSc in social anthropology from University College London.