Ekaterina Sedia

Last updated
Ekaterina Sedia
BornEkaterina Holland
(1970-07-09) July 9, 1970 (age 52) [1]
Moscow, Russia
Pen nameE. Sedia
OccupationNovelist, botany and plant ecology professor
Alma mater Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden
Genre Fantasy, steampunk, urban fantasy
Notable works The Alchemy of Stone
Website
ekaterinasedia.com

Ekaterina Sedia (born July 9, 1970) is a Russian fantasy writer. [2] She immigrated to the United States and attended college in New Jersey to obtain her Ph.D. [3] Her most famous work is The Alchemy of Stone , a steampunk novel that examines sexism and class bigotry. [4] Sedia's other novels include The Secret History of Moscow, According to Crow, Heart of Iron, and The House of Discarded Dreams . She has also written several short fiction stories, poems, and nonfiction books, as well as edited anthologies of short stories. [5] Several of her publications have been nominated for awards and/or have made a well-known reading list. In addition, Sedia was the editor for Jigsaw Nation and the World Fantasy Award-winning Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy . [6] In addition to writing, she teaches ecology and evolution courses as a professor at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey. [7]

Contents

Background and early life

Ekaterina Sedia was born on July 9, 1970 in Moscow, Russia, as Ekaterina Holland. [2] At age 21, Sedia moved to the United States to pursue advanced degrees. She currently teaches plant ecology and botany at Stockton University and lives in New Jersey with her husband Christopher Sedia and their cats. [3] In her spare time, she blogs about fashion, food, cats, books, television, and feminism. [2]

Education

Sedia did her undergraduate work at Moscow State University. [3] She later moved to Boston and worked at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Science as a research assistant. [8] [3] After that she moved to New Jersey and went to graduate school at Rutgers University-Camden, which is where she got her Ph.D in ecology and evolution in 2001. [3] Today she works at Stockton University teaching plant ecology and evolution. [9] [7]

Writing

Sedia has written novels, short stories, and essays, and has also edited several anthologies. [10] Her work features folklore, fantasy, urban fantasy, and steampunk aesthetics. She has occasionally published under the name E. Sedia. [11]

Novels

According to Crow (May 2005)

In this story set in Sium, Josiah lives in a world where even though the war is over it is still not great times. The war had been over for seventeen years: however, there is no doubt the Meran Empire would expand. Josiah meets Caleb and they become friends. The two boys leave the country for fear of being persecuted and they find a strange world. A war is about to happen and Josiah must choose sides and potentially betray his heritage. [12]

The Secret History of Moscow (November 2007)

The Secret History of Moscow is a fantasy novel set in the underworld of capitalist Russia. Galina lives in Moscow with her sister who gives birth in a bathroom. She then turns into a jackdaw and flies away. At first Galina is reluctant to report anything because of her history of mental illness. She then meets an alcoholic artist named Fyodor who claims he knows where the bird people go. Galina finally tells Yakov about this strange transformation and he too says he has seen something similar. Fyodor then takes them to a magical doorway to underground Moscow where creatures from Old Russian folklore live. They resurrect a dead body who then tells them his old boss might be responsible for the weird things that are going on. [13]

The Alchemy of Stone (July 2008)

In The Alchemy of Stone skilled alchemist named Mattie, who is a living doll, finds herself in a conflict between gargoyles mechanics, and alchemists. The city is under threat of revolution and Mattie learns of secrets that could change the balance of power in the city. Loharri, Mattie's creator learns of this and this upsets him. He has the key to Mattie's heart literally and will do what it takes to stop her. [4]

The House of Discarded Dreams (November 2010)

The House of Discarded Dreams is set in New Jersey and is considered urban fantasy. [14] College student Vimbai moves out and away from her controlling mother. She moves into a house on the beach with two other roommates where strange things start to happen. Maya is followed by a pack of dog like animals and Felix has a pocket universe instead of hair. Vimbai's dead grandmother returns as a ghost and starts doing house work. The house one day floats off to sea and starts expanding. Vimbai must find a way home and on her journey she unexpectedly learns about herself culturally. [15]

Heart of Iron (July 2011)

Heart of Iron takes place in Russia in 1852. Sasha an eighteen-year-old is enrolled into a university thanks to her aunt. At first, Sasha is concerned with sexism until she starts to notice that the Chinese students are disappearing. A boy with strange powers named Jack helps Sasha stop a kidnapping and this when she learns that a war could break out between China and Russia or China and England or both. [16]

Editing work

Sedia was an intern non-fiction editor for Clarkesworld Magazine, in the fall of 2008. [5]

She is also editor of the Award-winning Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (2008), [17] and other collections including Circus Fantasy: Fantasy Under the Big Top (2012), Jigsaw Nation (2006), and Running with the Pack (2010). [17] [18]

Awards

Academic career

Sedia is an associate professor of biology at Stockton University, in Galloway, New Jersey.

Sedia specializes in the characteristics of the New Jersey Pinelands and how the population of lichens, mosses, and grasses affect the forests and the succession of the forest. She coauthored an influential paper on the differential effects of lichens, mosses, and grasses on respiration and nitrogen mineralization, [19] how it promotes an alternate plant community, [20] and decomposition of litter in the New Jersey Pinelands. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Windling</span> American writer and editor

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Stevermer</span> American writer

Caroline Stevermer is an American writer of young adult fantasy novels and shorter works. She is best known for historical fantasy novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly Black</span> American author

Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won an Eisner Award, a Lodestar Award, a Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Bear</span> American author

Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky is an American author who works primarily in speculative fiction genres, writing under the name Elizabeth Bear. She won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Tideline", and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "Shoggoths in Bloom". She is one of a small number of writers who have gone on to win multiple Hugo Awards for fiction after winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Ford</span> American novelist

Jeffrey Ford is an American writer in the fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including fantasy, science fiction and mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales. He is a graduate of Binghamton University, where he studied with the novelist John Gardner.

World SF is a loose term for international, or global, speculative fiction, predominantly from the non-Anglophone world. An early use of the term came with the establishment of World SF, an association of SF professionals in 1976. According to the third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the term was partly revived by the author Lavie Tidhar, leading to the establishment of the World SF Blog, which ran 2009-2013. Early on, the Filipino blogger Charles A. Tan became involved with the blog, contributing much of the original material - including interviews with authors, reviews and the occasional editorial, including the important World SF: Our Possible Future in 2012. Tan was himself twice nominated for the World Fantasy Award, for his own blog, Bibliophile Stalker, and has edited several anthologies of Filipino speculative fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Lake</span> American writer

Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake, Jr. was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lived in Portland, Oregon, and worked as a product manager for a voice services company.

Catherynne M. Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Andre Norton, and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the World Fantasy Award–winning anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, along with numerous "Year's Best" volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities as well as in numerous essay collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodora Goss</span> American novelist

Theodora Goss is a Hungarian-American fiction writer and poet. Her writing has been nominated for major awards, including the Nebula, Locus, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Year's Best volumes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrie Vaughn</span> American author

Carrie Vaughn is an American writer, the author of the urban fantasy Kitty Norville series. She has published more than 60 short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as short story anthologies and internet magazines. She is one of the authors for the "Wild Cards" books. Vaughn won the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award for Bannerless, and has been nominated for the Hugo Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catriona Sparks</span> Australian writer

Catriona (Cat) Sparks is an Australian science fiction writer, editor and publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen H. Segal</span>

Stephen H. Segal is a Hugo Award-winning American editor, author, journalist and publication designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seanan McGuire</span> American author and filker (born 1978)

Seanan McGuire is an American author and filker. McGuire is known for her urban fantasy novels. She uses the pseudonym Mira Grant to write science fiction/horror and the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker to write the "Up-and-Under" children's portal fantasy series.

<i>Paper Cities</i> Book by Ekaterina Sedia

Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy is a 2008 speculative fiction anthology edited by Ekaterina Sedia.

<i>The Alchemy of Stone</i>

The Alchemy of Stone is a fantasy novel by Russian writer Ekaterina Sedia. It is an urban fantasy/steampunk novel dealing with an automaton's involvement in a proletarian revolution in the fictional city of Ayona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exotic Gothic</span>

Exotic Gothic is an anthology series of original short fiction and novel excerpts in the gothic, horror and fantasy genres. A recipient of the World Fantasy Award and Shirley Jackson Awards, it is conceptualized and edited by Danel Olson, a professor of English at Lone Star College in Texas.

<i>The House of Discarded Dreams</i>

The House of Discarded Dreams is a 2010 fantasy novel by Ekaterina Sedia about a college student who experiences many fairy tales and legends as she finds her place in the world.

A list of the published work of Ekaterina Sedia, American biologist and speculative fiction writer.

Matthew Kressel is a multiple Nebula, World Fantasy Award, and Eugie Award nominated author and coder. His short stories have been published in Tor.com, io9.com, Lightspeed Magazine, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, Apex Magazine, and many other magazines and anthologies. His first novel King of Shards was released in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mari Ness</span> American poet and author

Mari Ness is an American poet, author, and critic. She has multiple publications in various science fiction and fantasy magazines and anthologies. Her work has been published in Apex Magazine, Clarkesworld, Daily Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Lightspeed, Nightmare Magazine, Strange Horizons, Tor.com, and Uncanny Magazine. In Locus, Paula Guran said of The Girl and the House that Ness: "subverts and glorifies the clichés and tropes of every gothic novel ever written, in less than 1,800 words"

References

  1. ↑ On Turning Forty
  2. 1 2 3 "Ekaterinasedia.com » Biography". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Joyce, Graham (April 2009). "locus online: Ekaterina Sedia" . Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  4. 1 2 Newitz, Annalee. "A Living Doll Tries to Survive a Workers' Revolution in "The Alchemy of Stone"" Io9. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
  5. 1 2 "ekaterinasedia.com". ekaterinasedia.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-24. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kelly, Mark. "sfadb: Ekaterina Sedia Awards" . Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  7. 1 2 Sedia, Ekaterina (September 2013). "On summer, The Virgin Suicides, with some outfit pics" . Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Interview". Locus Online. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Billectric Interview". 30 September 2008.
  10. ↑ Sedia, Ekaterina (September 2013). "Ekaterina Sedia". Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "Summary Bibliography: Ekaterina Sedia". www.isfdb.org. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  12. ↑ Sedia, Ekaterina. "Novels." Ekaterina Sedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
  13. ↑ "The Secret History of Moscow." Kirkus Reviews 75.17 (2007): 895‐896. Academic Search Complete.
  14. ↑ Penn, Joanna. "Writing Fiction. What Is Urban Fantasy Anyway?" The Creative Penn RSS. N.p., 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 09 Oct. 2013.
  15. ↑ "The House of Discarded Dreams." Publishers Weekly 257.23 (2010): 40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
  16. ↑ "Heart Of Iron." Publishers Weekly 258.23 (2011): 29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.
  17. 1 2 http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2008/10/paper_cities_ed.sh . Retrieved October 24, 2013.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[ dead link ]
  18. ↑ "Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top edited by Ekaterina Sedia |". Prime Books. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  19. ↑ Ehrenfeld J.G., Sedia E.G., 2005. Differential effects of lichens, mosses and grasses on respiration and nitrogen mineralization in soils of the New Jersey Pinelands. Oecologia 144:1:137-147.
  20. ↑ Ehrenfeld J.G., Sedia E.G. 2003. Lichens and mosses promote alternate stable plant communities in the New Jersey Pinelands. Oikos 100:3:447-458.
  21. ↑ Ehernfeld J. G., Sedia S. G. 2006. Differential effects of lichens and mosses on soil enzyme activity and litter decomposition. Journal of Biology and Fertility of Soils 43:2:177-189.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.