Caitlín R. Kiernan

Caitlín R. Kiernan
Kiernan in 2011
Born	May 26, 1964 Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	author, paleontologist
Nationality	U.S.
Period	present
Genres	Science fiction, dark fantasy
Notable work(s)	Silk; To Charles Fort, With Love
www.caitlinrkiernan.com

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (born May 26, 1964 in Skerries, Dublin, Ireland) is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including seven novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes, and numerous scientific papers.

Overview

2001

Born in Dublin, Ireland, she moved to the United States as a small child with her mother. Much of her childhood was spent in the small town of Leeds, Alabama, and her early interests included herpetology, paleontology, and fiction writing. As a teenager, she lived in Trussville, Alabama, and, in high school, began doing volunteer work at the Red Mountain Museum in Birmingham, Alabama and spending summers on her first archaeological and paleontological digs. Kiernan attended college at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying geology and vertebrate paleontology, and she held both museum and teaching positions before finally turning to fiction writing in 1992. In 1988, she co-authored a paper describing the new genus and species of mosasaur, Selmasaurus russelli. Her first novel, The Five of Cups, was written between June '92 and early '93, though it wasn't published until 2003. Her first published short story was "Persephone," a dark science-fiction tale, released in 1995. Her most recent scientific publication is a paper on the biostratigraphy of Alabama mosasaurs, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2002).

Kiernan has had short fiction selected for Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and The Year's Best Science Fiction, and her short stories have been collected in several volumes (see Bibliography). To date, her work has been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, Korean, and Japanese. In May 1996, Kiernan was approached by Neil Gaiman and editors at DC/Vertigo Comics to begin writing for The Dreaming, a spin-off from Gaiman's very successful title, The Sandman. Kiernan wrote for the title from 1996 until its conclusion in 2001, working closely with Gaiman and focusing not only on preexisting characters (The Corinthian, Cain and Abel, Lucien, Nuala, Morpheus, Thessaly, etc.), but also on new characters (Echo, Maddy, the white dream raven Tethys, etc.). According to an entry in Neil Gaiman's blog, Kiernan was hired to write the novelization for the Beowulf film (scripted by Gaiman and Roger Avary).

Kiernan has often been categorized as a "horror writer," though she has repeatedly and adamantly rejected that categorization. For example, in her blog (2/3/02) she writes: "I'm getting tired of telling people that I'm not a 'horror' writer. I'm getting tired of them not listening, or not believing. Most of them seem suspicious of my motives."

In 2005, she began publishing the monthly Sirenia Digest (otherwise known as MerViSS) consisting of vignettes and short stories : "The MerViSS Project is a continuation of Caitlín’s exploration of the fusion of erotic literature with elements of dark fantasy and science fiction, creating brief, dreamlike fictions." It is currently illustrated by Vince Locke. The digest includes the occasional collaboration with Sonya Taaffe.

Kiernan is a transsexual, a lesbian, and Wiccan and lives in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. with her partner, photographer and doll maker Kathryn A. Pollnac.

Music

Between 1996 and 1997, Kiernan also fronted an Athens, Georgia-based "goth-folk-blues" band," Death's Little Sister, named for Neil Gaiman's character, Delirium. She was the band's vocalist and lyricist, and the group enjoyed some success on local college radio and played shows in Athens and Atlanta. Kiernan has said in interviews that she left the band in February 1997 because of her increased responsibilities writing for DC Comics and because her novel Silk had recently sold. She was briefly involved in Crimson Stain Mystery, a studio project, two years later. CSM produced one EP to accompany a special limited edition of Silk, illustrated by Clive Barker (Gauntlet Press, 2000).

Awards

Won

• International Horror Guild Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)
• Barnes and Noble Maiden Voyage Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Novel 2001 (Threshold)
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Short Story 2001 ("Onion")
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Mid-Length Fiction 2005 ("La Peau Verte")
• James Tiptree, Jr. Award Honoree, 2010 ("Galápagos")

Nominated (partial list)

• Bram Stoker Award 1995, Best Short Story ("Persephone")
• Bram Stoker Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)
• British Fantasy Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)
• Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Award, Best Graphic Novel 1998 (The Girl Who Would Be Death)
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Collection (Tales of Pain and Wonder)
• Bram Stoker Award, Best Graphic Novel 2001 (The Dreaming #56, "The First Adventure of Miss Caterina Poe")
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Graphic Novel 2001 (The Dreaming #56, "The First Adventure of Miss Caterina Poe")
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Short Form 2002 ("The Road of Pins")
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Collection 2005 (To Charles Fort, With Love)
• World Fantasy Award 2006, Best Collection 2005 (To Charles Fort, With Love)
• World Fantasy Award 2006, Best Short Fiction 2005 ("La Peau Verte")
• International Horror Guild Award, Best Mid-Length Fiction 2006 ("Bainbridge")
• Locus Awards 2010 (40th Annual), Best Fantasy Novel (The Red Tree)
• Locus Awards 2010 (40th Annual), Best Collection (A is for Alien)
• Shirley Jackson Award (3rd Annual, 2010), Best Novel (The Red Tree)
• World Fantasy Award 2010, Best Novel (The Red Tree)
• Shirley Jackson Award (4th Annual, 2011), Best Short Story ("As Red as Red")
• World Fantasy Award 2011, Best Collection 2010 (The Ammonite Violin & Others)

Bibliography

Main article: List of works by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Novels

• Silk, Penguin-Putnam, 1998, ISBN 978-0451456687  (1999, Gauntlet Press)
• Threshold (2001, Penguin-Putnam)
• The Five of Cups, Subterranean Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1931081801 
• Low Red Moon, Penguin-Putnam, 2003, ISBN 978-1931081849 
• Murder of Angels, Penguin-Putnam, 2004, ISBN 0451459962 
• Daughter of Hounds, Penguin-Putnam, 2007, ISBN 978-0451461575 
• Beowulf (2007; HarperCollins; novelization of 2007 film)
• The Red Tree (2009; Penguin-Putnam)
• The Drowning Girl: A Memoir (forthcoming March, 2012; Penguin-Putnam)
• Blood Oranges (forthcoming 2013; Penguin-Putnam)

Short fiction collections

• Tales of Pain and Wonder (2000, Gauntlet Press; 2002, Meisha Merlin; 2008, Subterranean Press)
• Wrong Things (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001; Subterranean Press)
• From Weird and Distant Shores (2002; Subterranean Press)
• To Charles Fort, With Love (2005; Subterranean Press)
• Alabaster (2006; Subterranean Press; illustrated by Ted Naifeh)
• A is for Alien (2009; Subterranean Press; illustrated by Vince Locke)
• The Ammonite Violin & Others (2010; Subterranean Press)
• Two Worlds and in Between: The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan (Volume One) (2011; Subterranean Press)
• Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (forthcoming 2012; Subterranean Press)

External links

• Official website
• Caitlín R. Kiernan at the Internet Movie Database
• Caitlín R. Kiernan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Traveling Through Dreams: Sequential Tart interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (February 1999)
• Universal Studios Horror Online Interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (April 2000)
• Pain, Wonder, and Really Old Things: An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan (October 2001)
• Caitlin R. Kiernan discusses Sirenia Digest (December 2006)
• Caitlín R. Kiernan, Atlanta Dark Fantasy Novelist (January 2007)
• Finding the Language I Need: A Conversation with Caitlín R. Kiernan at Clarkesworld Magazine (June 2010)