About this episode

Elah Feder discusses the resurgence of Jacqueline Harpman's novel 'I Who Have Never Known Men' with translator Ros Schwartz and Professor Susan Watkins.

In this episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations , host Elah Feder explores the remarkable resurgence of I Who Have Never Known Men , Jacqueline Harpman’s 1995 novel that went largely unnoticed for decades before becoming an international sensation. Harpman was a psychoanalyst and her training informed the book’s speculative fiction, dystopian, and science fiction genres. Elah first speaks with award-winning translator Ros Schwartz, who translated the novel into English twice –once in 1997 and again in 2022, when a new edition helped introduce Harpman’s work to a new generation of readers. Later, Elah is joined by Susan Watkins, Professor of Women’s Writing at Leeds Beckett University, to discuss the novel’s themes of resilience, isolation, and survival, and why this once-overlooked book is resonating so strongly with readers today. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

People in this episode

Host: Elah Feder

Guests: Ros Schwartz, Susan Watkins

Topics covered

• literature
• dystopian fiction
• women's writing
• resilience
• isolation
• survival

Keywords

• Jacqueline Harpman
• I Who Have Never Known Men
• dystopian
• science fiction
• literature
• translation
• women's writing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Leeds Beckett University

Books & works: I Who Have Never Known Men

More episodes of Lost Women of Science

• La mujer que demostró el efecto invernadero · June 24, 2026 · 36 min
• Best Of: The Woman Who Demonstrated the Greenhouse Effect · June 24, 2026 · 32 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Lost Women of Science podcast page.