Interviews

Martha Elizabeth Bray was born March 11, 1964 in Montgomery AL, and grew up in Texas. She studied theater at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1988. At age 26 she moved to New York, where she wrote plays (three of which were produced), worked in book publicity and advertising, and wrote three pseudonymous novels for a book packager. She met her husband, literary agent Barry Goldblatt, during

Lavie Tidhar was born November 16, 1976 and raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has traveled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu.

Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century. Story ‘‘Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs’’

Isobelle Jane Carmody was born June 16, 1958 in Wangeratta Australia. She moved to Melbourne at age five, but grew up mostly in Geelong. She studied journalism at university, and worked as a feature reporter for the Geelong Advertiser before being published as a fiction writer.

She is best known for her YA SF series the Obernewtyn Chronicles, which includes Obernewtyn (1987), The Farseekers (1990), Ashling (1995), The Keeping Place

Brian Francis Slattery was born in Ithaca NY. He attended Williams College, graduating with a BA in English in 1997, and went to graduate school at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, earning a Master’s in International Affairs in economic development with a concentration in human rights. He taught English in Japan, worked for the Guggenheim Foundation and the Gimbel Foundation, and works as an editor

Catherynne Morgan Valente was born in Seattle WA, and grew up moving between her parents in Seattle and Sacramento CA. She attended high school in Davis CA, graduating at age 15 and attending UC San Diego, where she took a degree in Classical studies. She attended grad school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but quit to move overseas. She married in 2002, and lived near Yokohama Japan, where her

James S.A. Corey is the pseudonym for collaborators Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck. (The first and last name are Abraham’s and Franck’s middle names, respectively, and the middle initials are those of Abraham’s daughter.) Together they write the Expanse SF series: Hugo Award finalist Leviathan Wakes (2011), Caliban’s War (2012), and the forthcoming Abaddon’s Gate, with a further three books to follow. They are also writing a forthcoming Star

Cordelia Caroline Sherman was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Manhattan. She attended Vassar, then earned her MA and PhD in Renaissance Studies at Brown University. She has taught at the university level, including at Boston University and Northeastern University. She has also taught numerous writing workshops, including Clarion and Odyssey, among others.

Sherman began publishing SF with story ‘‘Runner Beans’’ in 1985, and many of her early

Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky was born in Hartford CT. She attended the University of Connecticut, where she studied English and Anthropology, though she did not take a degree. She has worked as a technical writer, stable hand, reporter, and in assorted office jobs, and has been writing full-time for the past several years. She married Christopher Kindred in 2000, divorcing in 2007.

Bear sold a few short stories to small-press

Theodore Anthony Kosmatka was born December 16, 1973 in northwest Indiana, and was raised in Chesterton IN. He studied biology and chemistry at Indiana University, and worked as a zookeeper, steel mill worker, and laboratory research tech before becoming a writer for video game company Valve in 2009 (a job he describes as ‘‘like working in heaven, and your big fear is being kicked out of paradise.’’) Kosmatka has five

Timothy Aaron Pratt was born December 12, 1976 in Goldsboro NC. He traveled with his mother as a child, living in Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and West Virginia before settling back in Goldsboro. Pratt went to Appalachian State University in Boone NC, graduating with a BA in English in 1999, and attended the Clarion Writers Workshop that summer. He worked as an advertising copywriter briefly before moving to Santa Cruz CA

Gregory Albert Benford was born January 30, 1941 in Mobile AL, along with his identical twin James. Their father was in the army, and they moved frequently. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BS in physics in 1963, and earned his MS in 1965 and PhD in 1967 from UC San Diego. He worked at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory from 1967-71, then joined UC Irvine, where he was

Stanley Albert Schmidt was born March 7, 1944 in Cincinnati OH. He attended the University of Cincinnati, then attended graduate school at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland OH, earning a doctorate in physics in 1969. He spent nine years as a physics professor while ‘‘moonlighting as a science fiction writer.’’ In 1978, he took over as editor of Analog from Ben Bova, a position he held until announcing his retirement

Kij Johnson was born January 20, 1960 (as Katherine Irenae Johnson) in Harlan IA. She attended St. Olaf College in Northfield MN, where she took an undergraduate degree in the Paracollege, titled, ‘‘A Cultural History of England to 1066.’’ She lived in Minneapolis MN and Eugene OR before moving to New York City, where she began working in publishing as managing editor at Tor. She then moved to Portland OR

Richard Albert Kadrey was born August 27, 1957 in Brooklyn NY. He spent ten years there, and the next ten years in Houston TX. He briefly attended college before working a wide variety of jobs, including running a jewelry store, and working in numerous warehouses and department stores, driving forklifts and ‘‘moving stuff around.’’ He’s also been a rock musician and magazine editor, and hosted live interview show Covert Culture

Librarian, author, and critic Nancy Pearl was born January 12, 1945 and grew up in Detroit MI, spending much of her childhood in the public library. She decided to become a librarian at age ten, and got her Master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan in 1967 (she later earned another Master’s in history). She worked as a librarian in Detroit and as a librarian and bookseller

John Michael Scalzi II was born May 10, 1969, and grew up in Southern California, going to school in Claremont. He graduated from the Webb School in 1987 and attended the University of Chicago, where he became editor-in-chief of the Chicago Maroon and graduated with a philosophy degree in 1991. He moved back to California, where he became the film critic and later a columnist for the Fresno Bee. In

Ann Bordman was born March 6, 1957 in Kansas City MO and raised in Miami FL. She attended Florida State University in Tallahassee, graduating with a degree in criminology, and has remained in the area ever since. Though she originally intended to become a homicide detective, she fell in love with computer programming and design in graduate school, and has a long-time day job in that field. In 1989 she

John Holbrook Vance was born August 28, 1916 in San Francisco CA. He worked as a bellhop, in a cannery, and on a gold dredge before attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied engineering, physics, and journalism, though he never graduated. A lifelong musician and music lover, Vance’s first published works were jazz reviews for The Daily Californian.

Vance worked as an electrician at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii,

Tamora Pierce was born December 13, 1954 in southwest Pennsylvania, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pennsylvania. She studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1977 with a degree in liberal arts.

Pierce sold her first story, true-confession ‘‘What We Did Was Sin’’, in 1967 while a junior in college. The following year she enrolled in a writing course and began to write

Rae Dawn Carson was born August 17, 1973 in Oakland CA. She attended Livermore High School and graduated from Biola University in La Mirada CA in 1995. She worked in food service, retail, teaching, and architecture, among other professions. Her last job before becoming a full-time writer was working for the president of Ohio State University.

Carson became active in the science fiction field when she joined the Online Writers

Holly Riggenbach was born November 10, 1971 in New Jersey. She attended Temple University and finished her BA in English at the College of New Jersey in 1994. She married her high-school boyfriend Theo Black in 1999, and nearly completed a library science degree from Rutgers before taking a break from her studies for her first book tour; she never returned. Black has worked as a production editor for medical

William Francis Nolan was born March 6, 1928 in Kansas City, MO, and moved with his family to California when he was 19. He trained as a visual artist, and attended the Kansas City Art Institute from 1946-47, San Diego State College from ’47-’48, and Los Angeles City College in 1953. He married Marilyn Seal (now Cameron Nolan) in 1970.

Nolan worked as a writer and designer of greeting cards

Genevieve Valentine was born in 1981 into a military family, with her childhood spent in California, Texas, Illinois, and (mostly) Virginia. She attended George Mason University, earning a degree in English, and has worked in an occupational center for police officers and firefighters, behind the counter in a restaurant, with a wedding planner, and as an executive assistant.

Her first story was ‘‘29 Union Leaders Can’t Be Wrong” (2007), and

Seanan McGuire was born January 5, 1978 in Martinez CA. She studied folklore and herpetology – ‘‘folktales and snakes’’ – at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked as a phone sex operator, a technical support engineer, an exotic animal rescuer, and a process engineer for communications company SBC, but in recent years has worked as a quality assurance engineer for a non-profit.

McGuire is a relatively new writer,

John Picacio was born September 3, 1969 in San Antonio TX, where he grew up. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied architecture for five years. He worked as an architect while doing illustration work on the side, beginning with a cover and interiors for the 30th anniversary edition of Michael Moorcock’s Behold the Man. In 2001 he gave up architecture to become a full-time

Gerald Brom was born March 9, 1965 in Albany GA to a military family. He spent his first few years in Japan, but was primarily raised in various places in the US, including three years in Hawaii, before graduating from high school in Frankfurt Germany.

Brom attended art school in Atlanta GA, and worked as a commercial artist for several years before he started illustrating for comics. In 1989 took

Sarah Pinborough was born in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England. Her father was a career diplomat, and she lived abroad in Syria, India, the Sudan, Moscow, and elsewhere as a child. She spent ten years in British boarding schools, ‘‘did lots of bad things’’ in her twenties (including running table-dancing clubs in London), was briefly married, and trained to be a secondary school teacher. From age 30 she spent six years

Paul Di Filippo was born in Woonsocket RI. After graduating from high school in 1972, he spent time in Hawaii, where he began seriously trying to write. In 1973 he returned to the mainland to attend Rhode Island College, Providence, where he studied English and worked part-time until deciding to go traveling in Europe in the summer of 1979. Upon his return he received computer training, becoming a COBOL programmer,

Joe William Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City OK. He married Mary Gay Potter in 1965, and earned a BS in physics and astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1967. From 1967-69, he served as a combat engineer in the US Army in Vietnam, where he was seriously wounded and won a Purple Heart. He returned to college, attending graduate school at the University of Iowa