Elizabeth Bear | |
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![]() Bear in 2017 | |
Born | Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky September 22, 1971 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
Occupation | Novelist |
Alma mater | University of Connecticut |
Genre | Speculative fiction |
Notable works | Hammered Shoggoths in Bloom |
Notable awards | |
Spouse | |
Website | |
Official website |
Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky (born September 22, 1971) 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". [1] 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 (the others include C. J. Cherryh, Orson Scott Card, Spider Robinson, Ted Chiang and Mary Robinette Kowal).
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Bear studied English and anthropology at the University of Connecticut but did not graduate. She worked as a technical writer, stable hand, reporter and held various office jobs. She sold a few stories in the 1990s and began writing seriously in 2001. [2]
Bear's first novel, Hammered , was published in January 2005 and was followed by Scardown in July and Worldwired in November of the same year. The trilogy features Canadian Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey, who is also the main character in the short story "Gone to Flowers". Hammered won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2006.
The Chains That You Refuse, a collection of her short fiction, was published May 2006 by Night Shade Books. Blood and Iron, the first book in the fantasy series entitled The Promethean Age, debuted June 27, 2006. She is also a coauthor of the ongoing Shadow Unit website/pseudo-TV series.
In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University. [3]
She is an instructor at the Viable Paradise writer's workshop and has taught at Clarion West Writers Workshop.
The opening quote in Criminal Minds episode "Lauren" (6.18) was a direct quote of the second and third lines of Bear's book Seven for a Secret: "The secret to lying is to believe with all your heart. That goes for lying to yourself even more than lying to another."
She is one of the regular panelists on podcast SF Squeecast, which won the 2012 and 2013 Hugo Awards for Best Fancast. [4]
Bear married novelist Scott Lynch in October 2016. [5]
In 2021, Bear announced that she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. [6]
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Also appeared in Scheherazade issue #20 in 2000.)
Annalee Newitz of io9 wrote that Bear "is famous for combining high-octane military/spy tales with eccentric and subversive subplots". [10]
Work | Year & Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hammered | 2005 Astounding Award for Best New Writer | - | Won | |
Two Dreams on Trains | 2005 BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Nominated | |
Sounding | 2006 BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Nominated | |
Carnival | 2006 Philip K. Dick Award | - | Won (Special Citation) | |
2007 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | [11] | |
2007 Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction | LGBT Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy | Nominated | ||
2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | ||
Undertow | 2007 Philip K. Dick Award | - | Nominated | |
2008 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | ||
Wax | 2006 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
2007 Interzone Readers Poll | Story | 8th Place | [12] | |
Wane | 2007 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
Cryptic Coloration | 2008 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
New Amsterdam | 2008 Locus Award | Collection | Nominated | |
2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | ||
Orm the Beautiful | 2008 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
2008 WSFA Small Press Award | - | Shortlisted | ||
Tideline | 2008 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
2008 Asimov's Readers' Poll | Short Story | Won | [13] | |
2008 Hugo Award | Short Story | Won | ||
2008 Theodore Sturgeon Award | Short Science Fiction | Won | ||
Whiskey and Water | 2008 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | ||
A Companion to Wolves (with Sarah Monette) | 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction | LGBT Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy | Nominated | |
Dust | 2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | |
The Stratford Man | 2009 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Won | |
All the Windwracked Stars | 2009 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | |
Shoggoths in Bloom | 2009 Hugo Award | Novelette | Won | |
2009 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | ||
Shoggoths in Bloom (Collection) | 2013 Locus Award | Collection | Won | |
Boojum | 2009 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
By the Mountain Bound | 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | |
Seven for a Secret | 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | |
Chill | 2010 Philip K. Dick Award | - | Nominated | |
2011 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | ||
Cuckoo (with Leah Bobet & Emma Bull) | 2010 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | |
Mongoose | 2010 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
Bone and Jewel Creatures | 2011 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | |
2011 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | [14] | |
Range of Ghosts | 2012 Otherwise Award | - | Honor | |
2013 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | ||
METAtropolis: Cascadia | 2012 Audie Award | Original Work | Won | |
SF Squeecast | 2012 Hugo Award | Fancast | Won | |
2013 Hugo Award | Fancast | Won | ||
Dolly | 2012 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | [15] |
Grail | 2012 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | |
2012 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | ||
Faster Gun | 2013 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | [16] |
In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns | 2013 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | |
2013 Asimov's Readers' Poll | Novella | 4th Place | [17] | |
No Decent Patrimony | 2013 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
The Deeps of the Sky | 2013 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward | 2013 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
Covenant | 2015 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
Steles of the Sky | 2015 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
The Hand is Quicker | 2015 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
This Chance Planet | 2015 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
Karen Memory | 2016 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
2016 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards | Novel | Nominated | ||
The Heart's Filthy Lesson | 2016 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
The Stone in the Skull | 2018 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
Okay, Glory | 2019 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
The Red-Stained Wings | 2020 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
A Time to Reap | 2020 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | |
Ancestral Night | 2020 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | |
Erase, Erase, Erase | 2020 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
Lest We Forget | 2020 Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
Machine | 2021 Locus Award | SF Novel | Nominated | |
2021 Dragon Awards | Science Fiction | Nominated | ||
2021 Neffy Awards | Novel | Won | [18] | |
The Best of Elizabeth Bear | 2021 Locus Award | Collection | Nominated | |
A Blessing of Unicorns | 2022 Asimov's Readers' Poll | Novella | Won | [19] |
2022 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | ||
The Red Mother | 2022 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |