She Who Lies Above

In She Who Lies Above, Beatriz Hausner brings Hypatia of Alexandria, the fourth-century Byzantine mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, to life. She does so through layered ventriloquism: publishing amorous correspondence from the feminist icon's friend and former student, Synesius of Cyrene, and scribing Hypatia's replies in turn.

These letters are "discovered" by Bettina Ungaro, a librarian and archivist by day and poet by night. She, in turn, collates the correspondence to build a v...