Leslie What | |
---|---|
Born | Leslie Joyce Nelson 1955 (age 67–68) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Writer |
Education | Santa Ana College California State University, Fullerton Pacific University (MFA) Clarion Workshop |
Period | 1992-present |
Genre | Speculative Fiction |
Website | |
lesliewhat |
Leslie What (born Leslie Joyce Nelson, 1955) is a Nebula Award-winning writer of speculative, literary fiction and nonfiction with three books and nearly 100 short stories and essays to her credit. An attendee of Clarion Workshop, she lives in Oregon. She won the Nebula in 1999 for the short story, The Cost of Doing Business, and in 2005, she was a finalist for the Nebula, along with Eileen Gunn, for their co-written novelette, Nirvana High.
Leslie What was born Leslie Joyce Nelson [1] in 1955 in Los Angeles. [2] What's father deserted from the Red army shortly before the end of World War 2, escaping to the Western lines after his unit entered Berlin. He changed his name to Bill Nelson to shield his mother, What's grandmother, from possible reprisals for his desertion. What's mother was a German Holocaust survivor. [3]
What grew up in Southern California, attending Santa Ana College and earning a certificate in Vocational Nursing. What also attended California State University Fullerton and received her MFA in Writing from Pacific University in 2006. What worked as a licensed vocational nurse and later volunteered with the Chevra kadisha. She has been an instructor at UCLA Extension in The Writers Program (http://www.uclaextension.edu/). [4]
What adopted her current pseudonym around 1977, inspired by a friend who had dubbed herself "Karen Somebody." She attended the Clarion Workshop where she befriended speculative fiction author Eileen Gunn. She then moved to Oregon to be near science fiction authors and Clarion leaders Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm. After a hiatus, during which she married and became a mother, What moved back to Oregon in October 1985, submitting a story she had spent two years writing to Knight for critique. A discouraging review from Knight caused What to stop writing for years until Knight reconnected with her and asked to see the manuscript again. Despite this delay in her career, What credits Knight and Wilhelm's tutelage with much of her success. [3]
Her first published story, "King for a Day," came out in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1992. [1] She has since published more than 70 speculative fiction stories, as well as a number of poems and essays, [5] and her work has appeared in such places as Parabola , Witpunk, [1] Bending the Landscape, Interfictions, The Mammoth Book of Tales from the Road, [4] Sci Fiction , Best New Horror and other anthologies and magazines. [5] Her non-speculative work has appeared in Utne Reader, Oregun 55, Perigree, Lilith, Calyx, The Clackamas Review, and True Love. [4] She also writes on Jewish religious practices. [6]
What's speculative work trends heavily away from traditional science fiction. Per the author:
"My pretensions are even greater than those who aspire to write in the literary tradition. I would say I belong to the tradition of satire. The majority of my work uses exaggeration and irony alongside tropes of the fantastic." [1]
In addition to her short story and novelist career, What has been the senior nonfiction editor for "Silk Road, a literary crossroads" journal. She was the co-editor with R. A. Rycraft of Winter Tales: Women Write About Aging from Serving House Books. She was the first fiction editor for Phantom Drift: New Fabulism. Her work has been translated into German, Spanish, French, Russian, Hungarian, and Klingon. [7]
Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus awards. His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). He was an artist in residence at the University of Notre Dame in 2020–2021. Chiang is also a frequent non-fiction contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, most recently on topics related to computer technology, such as artificial intelligence.
Kate Wilhelm was an American author. She wrote novels and stories in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense genres, including the Hugo Award–winning Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Wilhelm established the Clarion Workshop along with her husband Damon Knight and writer Robin Scott Wilson.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.
Eileen Gunn is a science fiction author and editor based in Seattle, Washington, who began publishing in 1978. Her story "Coming to Terms", inspired, in part, by a friendship with Avram Davidson, won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 2004. Two other stories were nominated for the Hugo Award: "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" and "Computer Friendly" (1990).
Ellen Klages is an American science, science fiction and historical fiction writer who lives in San Francisco. Her novelette "Basement Magic" won the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. She had previously been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. Her first (non-genre) novel, The Green Glass Sea, was published by Viking Children's Books in 2006. It won the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Portable Childhoods, a collection of her short fiction published by Tachyon Publications, was named a 2008 World Fantasy Award Finalist. White Sands, Red Menace, the sequel to The Green Glass Sea, was published in Fall 2008. In 2010 her short story "Singing on a Star" was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. In 2018 her novella Passing Strange was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.
Kelly Link is an American editor and author of short stories. While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many of her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism. Among other honors, she has won a Hugo award, three Nebula awards, and a World Fantasy Award for her fiction, and she was one of the recipients of the 2018 MacArthur "Genius" Grant.
Andy Duncan is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose work frequently deals with Southern U.S. themes.
Vylar Kaftan is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. A Clarion West Workshop graduate, she lives on the U.S. West Coast.
Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast and served as editor from 2008 to 2010. She served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.
"Six Months, Three Days" is a science fiction novelette by Charlie Jane Anders. It was originally published online on Tor.com in 2011, and was subsequently reprinted in Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition and Year's Best SF 17. It won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Gardner Dozois. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2006, which also issued an ebook edition in July 2009.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2004 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Vonda N. McIntyre. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2004.
Sarah Pinsker is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is a nine-time finalist for the Nebula Award, and her debut novel A Song for a New Day won the 2019 Nebula for Best Novel while her story Our Lady of the Open Road won 2016 award for Best Novelette. Her novelette "Two Truths and a Lie" received both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. Her fiction has also won the Philip K. Dick Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards.
Sam J. Miller is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror short fiction author. His stories have appeared in publications such as Clarkesworld, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Lightspeed, along with over 15 "year's best" story collections. He was finalist for multiple Nebula Awards along with the World Fantasy and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards. He won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for his short story "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides." His debut novel, The Art of Starving, was published in 2017 and his novel Blackfish City won the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
Brooke Bolander is an American author of speculative fiction.
Neon Yang, formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award. The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time Magazine. Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.
"Nirvana High" is a science fiction short story by Eileen Gunn and Leslie What. It was first published in Gunn's 2004 collection Stable Strategies and Others.
Kelly Robson is a Canadian science fiction, fantasy and horror writer. She has won the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for her novelette "A Human Stain" published at Tor.com. She has also been nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 2016 for "Waters of Versailles" and in 2019 for "Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach", both published at Tor.com; "Waters of Versailles" also received the 2016 Prix Aurora Award for best Canadian short fiction.
Aliza T. Greenblatt is an American mechanical engineer and author of speculative fiction who writes as A. T. Greenblatt. to avoid confusion with poet Aliza Greenblatt.
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki or Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher who is the first African-born Black author to win a Nebula Award. He's also received a World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, Otherwise Award, and two Nommo Awards along with being a multi-time finalist for a number of other honors including the Hugo Award.