Caitlín R. Kiernan

Caitlín R. Kiernan
Kiernan in 2001 Kiernan in 2001
Occupation	author, paleontologist
Nationality	U.S.
Period	present
Genre	Science fiction, dark fantasy
Notable works	Silk; To Charles Fort, With Love
Website
http://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

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 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

Cover art by Ryan Obermeyer

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")

Bibliography

Main article: List of works by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Novels

File:Silk cover Kiernan.jpg

Cover of Silk

• Silk (1998; Penguin-Putnam)
• Threshold (2001; Penguin-Putnam)
• The Five of Cups (2003; Subterranean Press)
• Low Red Moon (2003; Penguin-Putnam)
• Murder of Angels (2004; Penguin-Putnam)
• Daughter of Hounds (2007; Penguin-Putnam)
• Beowulf (2007; HarperCollins; novelization of 2007 film)
• The Red Tree (2009; 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)
• Frog Toes and Tentacles (2005; Subterranean Press)
• Alabaster (2006; Subterranean Press; illustrated by Ted Naifeh)
• Tales from the Woeful Platypus (2007; Subterranean Press)
• A is for Alien (2009; Subterranean Press; illustrated by Vince Locke)
• The Ammonite Violin & Others (2010; forthcoming; Subterranean Press)
• Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (2010; forthcoming; Subterranean Press)

Further reading

• "Caitlín R. Kiernan: Transmutations (interview)". Locus. 61 (6): 84–86. 2008. ISSN 0047-4959. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (link)

External links

• Caitlín R. Kiernan's personal web site
• Caitlín R. Kiernan's LiveJournal
• Caitlín R. Kiernan at MySpace (mirrors LJ)
• Caitlín R. Kiernan's twitter page
• Caitlín R. Kiernan's blog, mirrors the LiveJournal (mirror no longer being updated)
• Caitlín R. Kiernan's entry at the Internet Movie Database
• Cover artist Ryan Obermeyer's online portfolio
• Caitlín R. Kiernan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Interviews

• Traveling Through Dreams: Sequential Tart interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (February 1999)
• An interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan: Author of Silk and The Dreaming (Nov. 14, 1999)
• Universal Studios Horror Online Interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (April 2000)
• Dreamweaver: An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan (October 2000)
• Pain, Wonder, and Really Old Things: An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan (October 2001)
• An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan by Geoffrey H. Goodwin at Bookslut (November 2004)
• What Are You Afraid Of? An Interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (December 2005)
• Caitlin R. Kiernan Walks The Plank at VanderWorld (April 2006)
• Caitlin R. Kiernan discusses Sirenia Digest (December 2006)
• Caitlín R. Kiernan, Atlanta Dark Fantasy Novelist (January 2007)
• Author Interview: Caitlin R. Kiernan at "Fear Zone" (April 2008)