Cassandra Khaw

Cassandra Khaw
Born	Zoe Khaw Joo Ee (1984-08-31) August 31, 1984 (age 41) Malaysia

Cassandra Khaw (born 31 August 1984) is a Malaysian writer of horror and science fiction. They also create video games and tabletop games, and formerly wrote about them as a games and tech journalist.

Biography

Cassandra Khaw was born in Malaysia on 31 August 1984 as Zoe Khaw Joo Ee. ^[1] They work as a horror and science fiction writer for video games, tabletop RPGs, short stories, and novels. ^{[2] [3]} Their articles and stories have been published in such magazines as Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Fireside Fiction, Uncanny Magazine , and Nature. Their video game writing appears in Eurogamer , Ars Technica , ^[4] The Verge, and Engadget . Khaw has stated they use they/them pronouns. ^[5]

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2017	Hammers on Bone	British Fantasy Award	Best Novella	Shortlisted	[6]
		Locus Award	Best Novella	Finalist	[7]
2018	Food of the Gods		Best Horror Novel	Finalist	[8]
2021	Nothing but Blackened Teeth	Bram Stoker Award	Best Long Fiction	Nominated	[9]
		Shirley Jackson Award	Best Novel	Finalist	[10]
2022		British Fantasy Award	Best Horror Novel (August Derleth Award)	Shortlisted	[11]
		Ignyte Award	Best Novella	Finalist	[12]
		RUSA CODES Reading List	Horror	Won	[13]
		World Fantasy Award	Best Novella	Nominated	[14]
	The All-Consuming World	Locus Award	Best First Novel	Finalist	[15]
	Breakable Things	Bram Stoker Award	Best Fiction Collection	Won	[16]
		Shirley Jackson Award	Best Single-Author Collection	Nominated	[17]
2023		British Fantasy Award	Best Collection	Shortlisted	[18]
		Locus Award	Best Collection	Finalist	[19]
		World Fantasy Award	Best Collection	Nominated	[20]
	The Salt Grows Heavy	Bram Stoker Award	Best Long Fiction	Nominated	[21]
		Shirley Jackson Award	Best Novella	Nominated	[22]
2024		Locus Award	Best Novella	Finalist	[23]
	The Dead Take a Train	Dragon Award	Best Horror Novel	Nominated	[24]

Bibliography

^[25]

Novels

• The All-Consuming World (2021)
• The Dead Take the A Train (with Richard Kadrey) (2023)
• Critical Role: Bells Hells–What Doesn't Break (2024)
• The Library at Hellebore (2025)

Gods & Monsters: Rupert Wong

• Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef (2015)
• Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth (2017)
• The Last Supper Before Ragnarok (2019)
• Food of the Gods (2017)

Novellas

• Nothing But Blackened Teeth (2021)
• The Salt Grows Heavy (2023)

Anthologies

• Southeast Asian Urban Anthologies
• Flesh: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology (2016) with Angeline Woon
• A Darker Shade: New Stories of Body Horror from Women Writers (2023)

Chapbooks

• Bearly a Lady (2017)

Born to the Blade

• Baby Shower (2018)
• Dreadnought (2018)

Persons Non Grata

• Hammers on Bone (2016)
• A Song for Quiet (2017)

Collections

• Breakable Things (2022)

Short fiction

• "Disconnect" (2014)
• "What the Highway Prefers" (2015)
• "Red String" (2015)
• "An Ocean of Eyes" (2015)
• "In the Rustle of Pages" (2015)
• "Her Pound of Flesh" (2015)
• "The Man Who Buys Giggles" (2015)
• "When We Die on Mars" (2015)
• "Clown Shoes" (2016)
• "Every Instance of You" (2016)
• "The Games We Play" (2016)
• "Breathe" (2016)
• "Some Breakable Things" (2016)
• "Speak" (2016)
• "The Price of Small Joys" (2016)
• "Degrees of Beauty" (2016)
• "And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice" (2016)
• "For the Things We Never Said" (2016)
• "Hungry Ghosts" (2016)
• "What to Do When It's Nothing but Static" (2017)
• "Goddess, Worm" (2017)
• "The Ghost Stories We Tell Around Photon Fires" (2017)
• "Radio Werewolf" (2017)
• "The Day They Found the Train" (2017)
• "Saudade" (2017)
• "Bearly a Lady" (2017)
• "Custom-Made" (2017)
• "I Built This City for You" (2017)
• "Masterclass" (2017)
• "These Deathless Bones" (2017)
• "The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat" (2017)
• "Degrees of Ellision" (2017)
• "Don't Turn on the Lights" (2017)
• "Kiss, Don't Tell" (2017)
• "A Secret of Devils" (2017)
• "Landmark" (2017)
• "The Quiet Like a Homecoming" (2018)
• "A Priest of Vast and Distant Places" (2018)
• "You Do Nothing but Freefall" (2018) with A. Maus
• "She Who Hungers, She Who Waits" (2018)
• "How the Spider Got Her Legs" (2018)
• "Four Revelations from the Rusalka Ball" (2018)
• "Recite Her the Names of Pain" (2018)
• "And Was Jerusalem Builded Here?" (2018)
• "Shooting Iron" (2018) with Jonathan L. Howard
• "Bargains by the Slant-Light" (2018)
• "Monologue by an unnamed mage", recorded at the brink of the end (2018)
• "Unbowed" (2018)
• "Nepenthe" (2019)
• "What We Have Chosen to Love" (2019)
• "Mighty Are the Meek and the Myriad" (2019)
• "Cinders" (2023)
• "Fortune Favors Grief" (2024)

Poems

• Protestations Against the Idea of Anglicization (2017)
• My Mama (2017)
• Apathetic Goblin Nightmare Woman (2017)
• Found Discarded: A Love Poem, Questionably Addressed. (2018)
• Octavia's Letter to Marcus Anthony on the Discovery of His Faithlessness (2018)
• A Letter from One Woman to Another (2019)
• Instructions for When You've Endured as Much as You Can (2019)
• Exorcism (2025)

Tabletop games

• Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (writer, Wizards of the Coast, 2021) ^[26]
• Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (writer, Wizards of the Coast, 2022) ^[27]

Video games

• She Remembered Caterpillars (2017) ^[28]
• Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) ^[29]
• Sunless Skies (2019) ^[30]
• Falcon Age (2019) ^[31]
• Hyper Scape (2020) ^[32]
• Wasteland 3 (2020) ^[33]
• Gotham Knights (2022) ^[32]
• World of Horror (co-writer, 2023) ^[34]

References

1. "SFE: Khaw, Cassandra". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 28 July 2025. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
2. Brennan, Marie; Khaw, Cassandra; Older, Malka; Underwood, Michael R. (4 April 2018). "Cassandra Khaw". Tor.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
3. Thomas, L.M.; Thomas, M.D.; Yap, I.; Kingfisher, T.; Kritzer, N.; Valentinelli, M.; Khaw, C.; Samatar, S.; Pho, D.M.; Silver, S.H. (2018). Uncanny Magazine Issue 25: November/December 2018 (in Italian). Uncanny Magazine. p. 109. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
4. "Cassandra Khaw". Ars Technica. 8 April 2017. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
5. Khaw, Cassandra. "Cassandra Khaw is mostly on hiatus (@casskhaw)". Twitter . Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
6. "2017 British Fantasy Awards Shortlist". 14 July 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
7. "2017 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 24 June 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
8. "2018 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 23 June 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
9. "2021 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
10. "2021 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus. 31 October 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
11. "Announcing the 2022 British Fantasy Awards Winners". Tor.com. 19 September 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
12. "2022 Ignyte Awards Winners". Locus. 19 September 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
13. "The Reading List". RUSA Update. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
14. "2022 World Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus. 6 November 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
15. "2022 Locus Awards Winners". Locus . 25 June 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
16. "2022 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus. 19 June 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
17. "2022 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2025.
18. "2023 British Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus. 18 September 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
19. "2023 Locus Awards Winners". Locus . 25 June 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
20. Molly Templeton (30 October 2023). "Announcing the 2023 World Fantasy Awards Winners". Reactor . Retrieved 7 July 2025.
21. "2023 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus. 3 June 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
22. "2023 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus. 13 July 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
23. "2024 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 24 June 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
24. "Dragon Awards 2024". SFADB. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
25. Chronological, Awards Alphabetical (31 August 1984). "Summary Bibliography: Cassandra Khaw". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
26. Hall, Charlie (23 February 2021). "Next Dungeons & Dragons campaign book reboots the many realms of Ravenloft". Polygon. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
27. "Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep". Critical Role US Shop (Product page). Archived from the original on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
28. Carpenter, Nicole (16 August 2016). "She Remembered Caterpillars turns personal grief into pretty puzzles". Kill Screen . Kill Screen Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
29. O'Connor, Alice (4 June 2018). "Where The Water Tastes Like Wine adds new stories and autowalk". Rock Paper Shotgun . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
30. Cox, Matt (4 May 2018). "I can't wait to build spaceships again in Captain Forever Trilogy". Rock Paper Shotgun . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
31. Dornbush, Jonathon (9 April 2019). "Falcon Age Review". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 20 August 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
32. Purchese, Robert (31 October 2022). "Inside the horror mind of Cassandra Khaw". Eurogamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
33. Singletary Jr, Charles (16 April 2018). "Wasteland 3 Update: Design, Art, Engineering Milestones Are Being Hit". Shacknews . Gamerhub. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
34. "WORLD OF HORROR Stalks Early Access on Steam Feb. 20, 2020". Gamasutra. 16 January 2020. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.

External links

• Cassandra Khaw at Library of Congress , with 6library catalogue records
• Cassandra Khaw at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database