Ellen Kushner

Ellen Kushner

Kushner in 2013
Born October 6, 1955 (1955-10-06) (age 61)
Washington, DC
Nationality American
Alma mater Barnard College
Genre Speculative fiction
Notable awards 1991 World Fantasy Award, 1991 Mythopoeic Award, and 2007 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Spouse Delia Sherman
Website
www.ellenkushner.com
Delia Sherman (l.) and Ellen Kushner.

Ellen Kushner (born October 6, 1955) is an American writer of fantasy novels. From 1996 until 2010, she was the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, produced by WGBH in Boston and distributed by Public Radio International.[1]

Background and personal life

Kushner was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Bryn Mawr College and graduated from Barnard College. She lives in New York City with her wife and sometime collaborator, Delia Sherman. They held a wedding in 1996[2][3] and were legally married in Boston in 2004.[4] Kushner identifies as bisexual.[5]

Writing career

Kushner's first books were five Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks. During that period, she published her first novel, Swordspoint in 1987. A sequel set 18 years after Swordspoint, called The Privilege of the Sword, was published in July 2006, with a first hardcover edition published in late August 2006 by Small Beer Press. The Fall of the Kings (2002) (co-authored by Sherman) is set 40 years after Swordspoint. All three books are considered mannerpunk novels, and take place in a nameless imaginary capital city and its raffish district of Riverside, where swordsmen-for-hire ply their trade.

From 2011 to 2014 audiobook versions of all three novels were produced under the label of Neil Gaiman Presents.[6] The Swordspoint adaptation won the 2013 Audie Award for Best Audio Drama,[7] an Earphones Award from AudoFile Magazine,[8] and the 2013 Communicator Award: Gold Award of Excellence (Audio).[9] The adaptation of The Fall of the Kings won the 2014 Wilbur Award.[10]

Kushner's second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won the World Fantasy Award[11] and the Mythopoeic Award[12] in 1991. She has also published short stories and poetry in various anthologies, including The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Borderland Series of urban fantasy anthologies for teenage readers.

In 2002, she released a CD of her story The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer Nutcracker, which uses music from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker to tell a Hanukkah story. The music on the CD is performed by Shirim Klezmer Orchestra. The Golden Dreydl won a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television.[13] A live theater version of The Golden Dreydl was performed in 2008 and 2009 at Vital Theater in New York City, written by Kushner (who played "Tante Miriam" in the 2008 production) and directed by Linda Ames Key.[14]

In 2007, Kushner, along with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom, scripted the musical audio drama The Witches of Lublin for public radio. Based on the history of Jewish women who were klezmer musicians in 18th Century Europe, The Witches of Lublin premiered on radio stations nationwide in April 2011 with performances by Tovah Feldshuh and Simon Jones.[15] It won the 2012 Wilbur Award for Best Single Program, Radio; the 2012 Grace Allen Award for Best Director, and the 2012 Gabriel Award: Arts, Local Release, Radio.[16]

In 2011 she co-edited (with Holly Black) Welcome to Bordertown, an anthology of new stories from Terri Windling's seminal shared-world series. In an audiobook adaptation Neil Gaiman read his own work, set to an original score by Boiled in Lead's Drew Miller.[17]

With Sherman and others, she is actively involved in the interstitial art movement. She is the co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation.[18]

She is also a member of the Endicott Studio and has taught classes and seminars as part of Hollins University's MFA program; the Odyssey Writing Workshop; and the Clarion Writers' Workshop.

Published novels

Choose Your Own Adventure books

Riverside

Other novels

Edited

References

  1. ↑ Final "Sound & Spirit" broadcasts
  2. ↑ Bickelhaupt, Susan; Maureen Dezell (1996-10-25). "Will Klein Sign His Letters From Washington?". The Boston Globe.
  3. ↑ Simon, Clea (2004-09-01). "It was love, but now it's gone". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  4. ↑ "NYRSF Readings' "Family Night" Features Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman Duo". SFScope. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  5. ↑ Kushner, Ellen. "Are You Bisexual?". Ellen Kushner's Tumblr. Tumblr. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  6. ↑ http://blog.acx.com/2011/10/25/neil-gaiman-presents-launches-on-acx/
  7. ↑ "Audie Award Best Drama". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  8. ↑ "Swordspoint:A Melodrama of Manners". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  9. ↑ "19th annual Communicator Award of Excellence Winners". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  10. ↑ "Sue Media Productions - Awards". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  11. ↑ "1991 World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees". Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  12. ↑ "Mythopoeic Awards - Winners". Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  13. ↑ "People and Publishing: Awards," Locus, May 2002, p.14
  14. ↑ "The Klezmer Nutcracker:Vital Theatre Company Announces Full Cast". New York Theatre Guide. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  15. ↑ "The Witches of Lublin:Complete Cast". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  16. ↑ "Music and Story for an Old Fashioned Passover". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  17. ↑ Doctorow, Cory. "Expanded "Welcome to Bordertown" audiobook, with Neil Gaiman, Steven Brust, Ellen Kushner and more". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  18. ↑ "Interstital Arts Foundation:IAF Origins". Retrieved 2015-02-08.
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