The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2019 Edition

About the Authors

A former academic and adjunct, Alix E. Harrow is now a full-time writer living in Kentucky with her husband and their semi-feral children. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards, and her first novel—The Ten Thousand Doors of January—is forthcoming from Orbit Books. Find her at @AlixEHarrow on Twitter.

Kelly Robson is an award-winning short fiction writer. In 2018, her story “A Human Stain” won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and in 2016, her novella “Waters of Versailles” won the Prix Aurora Award. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, John W. Campbell, and Sunburst awards. In 2018, her time travel adventure Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach debuted to high critical praise. After twenty-two years in Vancouver, she and her wife, fellow SF writer A.M. Dellamonica, now live in downtown Toronto.

Dale Bailey is the author of eight books, including In the Night Wood, The End of the End of Everything, and The Subterranean Season. His short fiction has won the Shirley Jackson Award and the International Horror Guild Award, and has been nominated for the Nebula and Bram Stoker awards. He lives in North Carolina with his family.

Beth Goder works as an archivist, processing the papers of economists, scientists, and other interesting folks. Her fiction has appeared in venues such as Escape Pod, Fireside, and an anthology from Flame Tree Press. You can find her online at www.bethgoder.com.

Alex Jeffers has been publishing various flavors of fiction off and on since 1976. His latest book is a massive collection, Not Here. Not Now (Lethe Press, 2018). Forthcoming from Less Than Three Press is a sword-&-sorcery romance, The Reach of Their Blades, under the byline Jack Lusignan. He lives in Oregon with a cantankerous, elderly cat and performs tricks for generous supporters at patreon.com/Alex_Jeffers.

Rich Larson (patreon.com/richlarson) was born in Galmi, Niger, has studied in Rhode Island and worked in the south of Spain, and now lives in Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of Annex and Cypher, as well as over a hundred short stories—some of the best of which can be found in his collection Tomorrow Factory. His work has been translated into Polish, Czech, French, Italian, Vietnamese and Chinese.

Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, won the Locus Award for best first novel and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke Awards. Its sequels, Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun, were both Hugo finalists. Lee’s short fiction has appeared in Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, F&SF, and other venues. He lives in Louisiana with his family and an extremely lazy cat, and has not yet been eaten by gators.

James Patrick Kelly has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. His most recent books are a collection, The Promise of Space (2018), from Prime Books, and a novel, Mother Go (2017), an audiobook original from Audible. In 2016 Centipede Press published a career retrospective Masters of Science Fiction: James Patrick Kelly. Coming in January 2020, King Of The Dogs, Queen Of The Cats, a novella from Subterranean Press. Jim’s fiction has been translated into eighteen languages. With John Kessel, he has co-edited five anthologies. He writes a column on the internet for Asimov’s. Find him on the web at www.jimkelly.net.

Sarah Pinsker’s fiction has won the Nebula & Sturgeon Awards, and she has been a finalist for the Hugo and other awards. Her stories have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese, among other languages. Her first collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea (Small Beer Press), was published in March 2019, and her first novel, Song For A New Day (Berkley), in September 2019. She is also a singer/songwriter with three albums and another forthcoming. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Juliette Wade never outgrew of the habit of asking “why” about everything. This path led her to study foreign languages and to complete degrees in both anthropology and linguistics. Combining these with a fascination for worldbuilding and psychology, she creates multifaceted science fiction that holds a mirror to our own society. The author of short fiction in magazines including Analog, Clarkesworld, and F&SF, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her Aussie husband and her two sons, who support and inspire her. Her debut novel, Mazes of Power, will come out from DAW in 2020.

S. Woodson lives in Virginia and is a graduate of the Hollins University M.A. in Children’s Literature program. She’s written a handful of Twine games, but this was her first story in print. You can find her on Twitter @Citrushistrix.

David Gerrold & Ctein are the proverbial twin brothers from different mothers. Both are obsessive-compulsive control freaks who fight ferociously with each other about getting the details right. Ctein is the author of Saturn Run (with John Sandford) and Digital Restoration, the definitive guide to digital restoration of old photos. David Gerrold wrote a script for Star Trek once, and some other stuff too. He is also the author (and the father) of “The Martian Child.”

Erin Roberts’ short fiction has appeared in publications including Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, PodCastle, and The Dark. She has an MFA from the Stonecoast program at University of Southern Maine, is a graduate of the Odyssey Writers Workshop and was the winner of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s 2017 Diverse Worlds and Diverse Writers awards and a 2019 Maryland Individual Artist Award. To learn more about her work or read her musings on writing and life, follow her on Twitter at @nirele or visit her website at writingwonder.com.

Adam-Troy Castro made his first non-fiction sale to Spy in 1987. His twenty-six books to date include four Spider-Man novels, three novels about his profoundly damaged far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, and six middle-grade novels about the dimension-spanning adventures of young Gustav Gloom. His many works have won the Philip K. Dick Award and the Seiun (Japan), and have been nominated for eight Nebulas, three Stokers, two Hugos, and, internationally, the Ignotus (Spain), the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France), and the Kurd-Laßwitz Preis (Germany). Adam lives in Florida with his wife Judi and a trio of revolutionary cats.

Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer. Her short stories have appeared in markets such as Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, and Asimov’s, and there is a poetry collection, Mary Shelley Makes A Monster, forthcoming from Aqueduct Press. She attended Clarion West 2016, and will be the 2020 writer-in-residence at Massey University.

Julie Nováková is a Czech author and translator of SF, fantasy and detective stories. She has published short fiction in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Analog and elsewhere. Her work in Czech includes eight novels, one anthology and over thirty short pieces. She has been translated into Chinese, Romanian, Estonian, German, Filipino and Portuguese. Julie received the Encouragement Award of the European SF and fantasy society in 2013, the Aeronautilus award for the best Czech short story of 2014 and 2015, and the best novel of 2015. Her translations appeared in Strange Horizons, Tor.com and F&SF. More at www.julienovakova.com, Twitter @Julianne_SF or patreon.com/julienovakova.

Lavie Tidhar is the author of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize winning and Premio Roma nominee A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), the World Fantasy Award winning Osama (2011) and of the Campbell Award winning and Locus and Clarke Award nominated Central Station (2016). His latest novels are Unholy Land (2018) and first children’s novel Candy (2018). He is the author of many other novels, novellas and short stories.

Cadwell Turnbull is the author of the science fiction novel The Lesson. He is a graduate from the North Carolina State University’s Creative Writing MFA in Fiction and English MA in Linguistics. He attended Clarion West 2016. Turnbull’s short fiction has appeared in The Verge, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Asimov’s. His short story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. His novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected as notable story for the anthology.

Carolyn Ives Gilman is a Hugo and Nebula Award nominated author of science fiction and fantasy. Her books include Dark Orbit, a space exploration adventure; Isles of the Forsaken and Ison of the Isles, a two-book fantasy about culture clash and revolution; and Halfway Human, a novel about gender and oppression. Her short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and others. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages. Gilman lives in Washington, D.C., and works as a freelance writer and museum consultant.

Rick Wilber has published several novels and collections and more than fifty short stories in the usual markets. His novel, Alien Morning (Tor, 2016), was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2016. The sequel, Alien Day: Notes from Holmanville, will be out in 2020. He is a visiting assistant professor in the low-residency MFA genre-fiction program at Western Colorado University and is administrator of the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. His remarkable Down syndrome son has heavily influenced the story in this collection and many others.

Kathleen Jennings is a Ditmar Award winning writer and World Fantasy and Hugo nominated illustrator in Brisbane, Australia. She has recently completed a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing (Australian Gothic Literature) at the University of Queensland. Her short stories have appeared on Tor.com, in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, in anthologies from Candlewick, Ticonderoga and Fablecroft Publishing, and elsewhere, and her novella Flyaway has been acquired by Tor.com, to be published in 2020. She can be found online at tanaudel.wordpress.com.

Alec Nevala-Lee is a Hugo Award finalist for the group biography Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (Dey Street Books / HarperCollins), which was named one of the best books of 2018 by The Economist. He is the author of three suspense novels published by Penguin, and his stories have appeared in Analog, Lightspeed, and two editions of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. His nonfiction has been featured in the New York Times. He is currently at work on a biography of the architectural designer Buckminster Fuller.

P H Lee’s fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine and Worlds Without Master. In addition to their writing, P H Lee has worked as a game developer, tutor, graphic designer, and administrative assistant. Their hobbies include translating the Chinese classics and reading Wikipedia. They live together with several other people, far from the bells of the city.

Justina Robson (www.justinarobson.co.uk) was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1968. She sold her first novel in 1999, which also won the 2000 amazon.co.uk Writers’ Bursary Award. Her eleven books have been variously shortlisted for most of the major genre awards, including her latest novel Glorious Angels. A collection of her short fiction, Heliotrope, was published in 2012. Her novels and stories range widely over SF and fantasy, often in combination and often featuring AIs and machines who aren’t exactly what they seem. She is also the proud author of The Covenant of Primus (2013)—the Hasbro-authorised history and ‘bible’ of The Transformers. She lives in t’North of England with her partner, three children, a cat and a dog.

New Zealand born, Australian resident Juliet Marillier is the author of twenty-one novels, including the Sevenwaters and Blackthorn & Grim series, plus assorted short fiction. Juliet is a member of OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.) Her lifelong love of mythology and folklore is a major influence on her writing. Juliet’s new novel, The Harp of Kings, first book in the Warrior Bards series, comes out in September 2019. When not writing, Juliet tends to a small crew of rescue dogs. More at www.julietmarillier.com

Jim Sallis has published seventeen novels, multiple collections of stories, poems and essays, three books of musicology, a biography of Chester Himes, and a translation of Raymond Queneau’s novel Saint Glinglin. “As a child” he helped edit New Worlds, and for many years has contributed a books column to F&SF. Shorter work appears regularly in literary journals, Asimov’s, F&SF, Interzone, and many others. Jim has received a lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, the Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing, and the Grand Prix de Littérature policière.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was a celebrated and beloved author of twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve children’s books, six volumes of poetry and four of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebulas, seven Hugos, and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/Malamud and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.