Elizabeth Hand

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Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Hand Finncon2007 cropped.jpg
Elizabeth Hand at Finncon 2007 in Jyväskylä, Finland
Born (1957-03-29) March 29, 1957 (age 67)
Yonkers, New York, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Alma mater Catholic University of America
GenreScience fiction, Fantasy
Website
elizabethhand.com

Elizabeth Hand (born March 29, 1957) is an American writer.

Contents

Life and career

Hand grew up in Yonkers and Pound Ridge, New York. She studied drama and anthropology at the Catholic University of America. Since 1988, Hand has lived in coastal Maine, the setting for many of her stories, and as of 2000 lives in Lincolnville. [1] She also lives part-time in Camden Town, London which has been the setting for Mortal Love and the short story "Cleopatra Brimstone".

Hand's first published story, "Prince of Flowers", appeared in 1988 in The Twilight Zone Magazine, [2] [3] and her first novel, Winterlong, was published in 1990. With Paul Witcover, she created and wrote DC Comics' 1990s cult series Anima . [4] Hand's other works include Aestival Tide (1992); Icarus Descending (1993); Waking the Moon (1994), which won the Tiptree Award and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award; the post-apocalyptic novel Glimmering (1997); contemporary fantasy Black Light (1999), a New York Times Notable Book; the historical fantasy Mortal Love (2004), a Washington Post Notable Book; the psychological thriller Generation Loss (2007), and the World Fantasy Award-winning "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon". Her story collections are Last Summer at Mars Hill (1998) (which includes the Nebula and World Fantasy award-winning title novella); Bibliomancy (2002), winner of the World Fantasy Award; [5] and Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories , which includes the Nebula Award-winning "Echo" (2006). Mortal Love was also shortlisted for the 2005 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.

Among Hand's other recent short fiction, "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" (2002) and "Cleopatra Brimstone" (2001) won International Horror Guild Awards. [6] Most recently, she won the Shirley Jackson Award for Generation Loss and the World Fantasy Award in 2008 for Illyria, [5] and the Inkpot Award in 2018. [7]

She also writes movie and television spin-offs, including Star Wars tie-in novels and novelizations of such films as The X-Files and 12 Monkeys . She contributed a Bride of Frankenstein novel to the recent series of classic movie monster novels published by Dark Horse Comics.

One of Hand's themes from the Winterlong saga is the remorseless exploitation of animal and plant species to create what she calls "geneslaves." Examples include a three-hundred-year-old genetically reconstructed and cerebrally augmented Basilosaurus by the name of Zalophus; the aardmen, hybrids of dog and man; hydrapithecenes, human-fish or human-cuttlefish hybrids somewhat resembling Davy Jones and his crew from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series; and sagittals, whelks genetically engineered to be worn as a bracelet and, when its host feels threatened or agitated, extrude a spine laced with a deadly neurotoxin.

Hand is a longtime reviewer and critic for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Review , Salon , and Village Voice, among others. She also writes a regular review column for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction .

Bibliography

Novels

Cass Neary Crime Novels

Star Wars Expanded Universe

Adaptations

Short fiction

Collections
Stories

(Uncollected)

Awards

Awards for Elizabeth Hand
WorkYear & AwardCategoryResultRef.
2018 Inkpot Award -Won
Winterlong1990 Philip K. Dick Award -Nominated
1991 Locus Award First NovelNominated [9]
Snow on Sugar Mountain1992 Locus AwardNoveletteNominated
Æstival Tide1992 Philip K. Dick Award-Nominated
1993 Locus AwardSF NovelNominated
In the Month of Athyr1993 Locus AwardNoveletteNominated
Icarus Descending1993 Philip K. Dick Award-Nominated
The Erl-King1994 World Fantasy Award NovellaNominated
Waking the Moon1995 World Fantasy AwardNovelNominated
1995 Otherwise Award -Won
1996 Locus AwardFantasy NovelNominated
1996 Mythopoeic Awards Adult LiteratureWon
Glimmering1998 Locus AwardSF NovelNominated
1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award -Finalist
Last Summer at Mars Hill1995 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
1995 HOMer AwardNovellaNominated [10]
1995 World Fantasy AwardNovellaWon
1996 Nebula Award NovellaWon
Last Summer at Mars Hill (Collection)1999 World Fantasy AwardCollectionNominated
1999 Locus AwardCollectionNominated
Black Light2000 Locus AwardFantasy NovelNominated
Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol2001 World Fantasy AwardNovellaNominated
2001 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
Cleopatra Brimstone2001 International Horror Guild Award Long FictionWon [11]
2002 World Fantasy AwardNovellaNominated
2002 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
Pavane for a Prince of the Air2002 International Horror Guild AwardIntermediate FormWon
2003 Locus AwardNoveletteNominated
The Least Trumps2003 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
2003 World Fantasy AwardNovellaNominated
Bibliomancy2003 International Horror Guild AwardCollectionNominated
2003 Bram Stoker Award Fiction CollectionNominated
2004 World Fantasy AwardCollectionWon
2004 Locus AwardCollectionNominated
Mortal Love2004 International Horror Guild AwardNovelNominated
2005 Locus AwardFantasy NovelNominated
2005 Mythopoeic AwardsAdult LiteratureNominated
Wonderwall2005 Locus AwardShort StoryNominated
Calypso in Berlin2006 Locus AwardShort StoryNominated
Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories2007 Locus AwardCollectionNominated
The Saffron Gatherers2007 Locus AwardShort StoryNominated
Generation Lost 2007 International Horror Guild AwardNovelNominated [12]
2007 Believer Book Award -Nominated
2008 Shirley Jackson Award NovelWon
Echo2007 Nebula AwardShort StoryWon
Illyria2008 Shirley Jackson AwardNovellaNominated [13]
2008 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
2008 World Fantasy AwardNovellaWon
Winter's Wife2008 Locus AwardNoveletteNominated
The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon 2011 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
2011 World Fantasy AwardNovellaWon
2011 Hugo Award NovellaNominated
2011 Theodore Sturgeon Award Short Science Fiction2nd Place [14]
Near Zennor2012 Shirley Jackson AwardNovellaWon
2012 Locus AwardNovellaNominated
2012 World Fantasy AwardNovellaNominated
2012 British Fantasy Award NovellaNominated
Erranty: Strange Stories2012 Bram Stoker AwardFiction CollectionNominated
2013 Shirley Jackson AwardCollectionNominated
2013 Locus AwardCollectionNominated
Radiant Days2013 Locus AwardYoung Adult BookNominated
Wylding Hall2016 Shirley Jackson AwardNovellaWon
2016 Locus AwardFantasy NovelNominated
Hard Light2016 Bram Stoker AwardNovelNominated
Fire2018 Locus AwardShort StoryNominated
Curious Toys2020 Shirley Jackson AwardNovelNominated [15]
2020 Locus AwardHorror NovelNominated
The Book of Lamps and Banners2021 Locus AwardFantasy NovelNominated [16]
For Sale by Owner2022 World Fantasy AwardNovellaNominated
2022 Locus AwardNoveletteNominated
The Best of Elizabeth Hand2022 Locus AwardCollectionNominated
A Haunting on the Hill2023 The Dracula SocietyChildren of the Night AwardNominated [17]
2024 Locus AwardHorror NovelNominated
2024 Shirley Jackson AwardSpecial AwardWon [18]

Book reviews

YearReview articleWork(s) reviewed
2000Hand, Elizabeth (May 2000). "Books". F&SF . 98 (5): 29–34.
  • Bailey, Dale (1999). American nightmares : the haunted house formula in American popular fiction. Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
2011Hand, Elizabeth (July–August 2011). "Books". F&SF . 121 (1&2): 42–48.
  • Pacitti, Tony (2010). My best friend is a Wookie. Adams Media.
  • Yu, Charles (2010). How to live in a science fictional universe. Pantheon.
  • Kimmel, Daniel M. (2011). Jar Jar Binks must die ... and other observations about science fiction movies. Fantastic Books.

Footnotes