This image is the cover for the book Base Ten

Base Ten

In this “wonderful first novel” an astrophysicist struggles with returning to her career in science after putting it on hold for her family (The Grand Rapids Press).

Raised to believe that she could do anything, astronomer Jillian Greer dreamed of going into space. When she and her research partner Kera Sullivan invented a specialized telescope, it looked as though these two dogged scientists would fulfill the dream they shared.

But ten years later, while Kera trains in a space simulator, Jillian is married with children, packing lunches and helping her kids with homework. With her field’s archaic “all or nothing” mindset, maintaining both a family life and a scientific career seems like an impossible task.

As her fortieth birthday draws near, Jillian decides that she must give her career one more shot. Leaving her family for ten days, one day for each year she has put her career on hold, she seeks solitude in the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, where she struggles to see if she can find her way back to the stars.

Maryann Lesert, Florence Howe

Maryann Lesert lives and works in West Michigan, where she is an assistant professor of English at Grand Rapids Community College. She received a dual BA in Art and English from Western Michigan University, and an MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, KY.Lesert is a prolific playwright whose works include Superwoman, The Music in the Mess, and Natural Causes, a finalist for the 2001 Princess Grace Foundation's National Playwright's Fellowship. Recently, she has published short plays in The Art of the One Act and The Best Ten Minute Plays 2007.

Feminist Press at CUNY