Ellen Kushner

After college, I wanted to be a writer, but there aren't any jobs like that, and I knew I'd be a lousy waitress because I'd drop things and be rude to people. Happily, I lucked into work as a fantasy editor for Jim Baen at Ace Books, and then got kidnapped by David G. Hartwell to work at Pocket/Simon & Schuster. I quit to write my first novel, Swordspoint, which took longer than I thought it would, so I supported myself by writing Choose Your Own Adventure® books. But writing is a lonely business, and I love being onstage. So after I wrote my second novel, Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award), I moved to Boston to become an announcer for WGBH public radio, later becoming the writer and host of PRI's national series Sound & Spirit.

During that time, I wrote The Fall of the Kings with Delia Sherman, and pulled an old manuscript out of a drawer, something I'd started after Swordspoint, about Alec's teenage niece. My agent said I should finish it, so I did. I call it TPOTS (pronounced "teapots"), but its real name is The Privilege of the Sword. About this time, it became clear I was writing all the Swordspoint novels (and short stories) out of order—a practice I've continued in the years since, as I collaborated with a bunch of wonderful colleagues on a prequel to Swordspoint called Tremontaine between 2016-2018. I’ve just finished another standalone novel about Alec’s bastard daughter, the angriest teenager in the world (working title, City Year)—I’ll let you know when I’ve got the pub date for that.

I love reading my own work aloud, and have been hideously indulged by producer SueMedia, who allowed me to read all three Swordspoint novels into a microphone for Audible. Swordspoint won an Audie from the Audio Publishers Association for Audio Drama in 2013, while The Privilege of the Sword was a finalist in 2013 for the Audie in Multi-Voiced Performance, and The Fall of the Kings was likewise an Audie Finalist in 2014 (for both Audio Drama and Multi-Voiced Performance) while winning the 2014 Wilbur Award.

I am proud to have been one of the original writers on Terri Windling’s groundbreaking Bordertown shared world series. Some 20 years after it was originally published, Holly Black and I co-edited the anthology Welcome to Bordertown, inviting younger writers who grew up with the series to join some of us old-timers on the Border where Elves on Motorbikes are pretty common. I sometimes teach creative writing at Clarion, the Odyssey Workshop, and Hollins University’s Children’s Literature summer M.F.A. program.

I live in New York City with my wife—the writer, teacher, editor and my best friend—Delia Sherman. We have no cats, but lots of plane tickets and theater stubs.