After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia (42 page)

Richard Bowes
has published five novels, two collections of short fiction, and over fifty stories,
winning two World Fantasy Awards, the Lambda Award, the International Horror Guild
Award, and the Million Writers Award. Recent and forthcoming stories appear in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
,
Realms of Fantasy
,
Icarus
,
Bewere the Night
,
Naked City
,
Nebula Awards Showcase
,
Supernatural Noir
,
Wilde Stories
, and
Blood and Other Cravings
. Rick lives in New York City, and can be found online at
www.rickbowes.com
.

Sarah Rees Brennan
was born and raised in Ireland, by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to
make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic), but she chose
to read books under her desk in class instead. She began working on her debut novel,
The Demon’s Lexicon
, while doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in Surrey, England. Since then
she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures.
Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. Her
most recent books are
The Demon’s Covenant
and
The Demon’s Surrender
; she also contributed to
The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy
. You’ll find her online at
www.sarahreesbrennan.com
.

Cecil Castellucci
is the author of YA novels including
First Day on Earth
,
Rose Sees Red
,
Beige
,
The Queen of Cool
, and
Boy Proof
, and
The Year of the Beasts
(forthcoming). She has published a picture book,
Grandma’s Gloves
; two graphic novels,
The Plain Janes
and
Janes in Love
(illustrated by Jim Rugg), and numerous short stories published in
Strange Horizons
,
Teeth
,
The Eternal Kiss
,
Geektastic
(which she coedited), and
Interfictions 2
, among other places. Cecil also writes plays, operas, makes movies, does performance
pieces, and occasionally rocks out. You’ll find more information on Cecil and her
work at
www.misscecil.com
.

Carolyn Dunn
is an American Indian writer of Cherokee, Muskogee Creek, and Seminole descent on
her father’s side, and is Cajun, French Creole, and Tunica-Biloxi on her mother’s.
Primarily a poet and a playwright, Carolyn began telling and writing stories at a
very young age, being exposed to storytelling traditions from all aspects of her very
Southern and very Western background. Her books for adult readers include
Through the Eye of the Deer
,
Hozho: Walking in Beauty
, and
Outfoxing Coyote
. She has also published YA short fiction in
The Green Man
, and a book for children,
Coyote Speaks
. Her plays have been produced all over the country, the most recent being
The Frybread Queen
. Carolyn and her family live in a redwood forest in California, where she’s at work
on a dystopian novel related to the story in this anthology. To learn more about her
books, plays, poetry, and music, visit her online at
www.carolyndunn.com
.

Carol Emshwiller
grew up in Michigan and in France and now divides her time between New York and California.
Her stories have appeared in literary and science fiction magazines for over forty
years, and have been published in a number of critically acclaimed collections—most
recently,
The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller
and
In the Time of War & Master of the Road to Nowhere
. Carol’s work has been honored with two Nebula Awards and the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the World Fantasy Convention.

She’s also been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and two literary
grants from New York State.

Jeffrey Ford
is the author of the novels
The Physiognomy
,
Memoranda
,
The Beyond
,
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
,
The Girl in the Glass
, and
The Shadow Year
; and his short fiction has been published in three collections:
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant
,
The Empire of Ice Cream
, and
The Drowned Life
. He has won the World Fantasy Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award,
and the Gran Prix de l’Imaginaire. Formerly a college teacher in New Jersey, Jeff
now lives in Ohio with his wife and two sons, and writes full-time. You can learn
more about his work at
www.wellbuiltcity.com
.

Steven Gould
is the author of the novels
Jumper
(which was made into a feature film),
Wildside
,
Helm
,
Blind Waves
,
Reflex
,
Jumper: Griffin’s Story
,
7th Sigma
, and the upcoming
Impulse
. His story for this anthology is set in the early days of the metal bug infestation
detailed in
7th Sigma
. Steven is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction,
and his short fiction has appeared on both the Hugo and Nebula ballots, but his favorite
“honor” was being on the American Library Associations Top 100 Banned Books list 1990–1999.
He lives in New Mexico with his wife, writer Laura J. Mixon, and their two daughters.
His blog, An Unconvincing Narrative, can be found at
http://eatourbrains.com/steve
.

Nalo Hopkinson
was born in Jamaica and has lived in Canada since 1977. She is the author of five
novels (
Brown Girl in the Ring
,
Midnight Robber
,
The Salt Roads
,
The New Moon’s Arms
, and
The Chaos
), one story collection (
Skin Folk
), and has also edited several anthologies. She is a recipient of the Warner Aspect
First Novel Award, the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for emerging writers,
the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the Locus Award for Best New Writer,
the World Fantasy Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic,
the Aurora Award, the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and her work received an Honorable
Mention in Cuba’s
Casa de las Americas
literary prize. Visit Nalo online at
www.nalohopkinson.com
.

N. K. Jemisin
is a Hugo and Nebula nominee for her debut novel
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
as well as for her short fiction, and has been published in such diverse venues as
Postscripts
,
Clarkesworld
, and the Escape Artists podcasts. “The Trojan Girl,” published in
Weird Tales
, was set in the same dystopian milieu as “Valedictorian”; and she is (slowly) working
on a young adult novel also set there. Her fourth and fifth novels,
The Killing Moon
and
The Shadowed Sun
, will be published in mid-2012. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and can be found
online at
nkjemisin.com
.

Caitlín R. Kiernan
is the author of several novels, including
Low Red Moon
,
Daughter of Hounds
, and
The Red Tree
, which was nominated for both the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards. Her latest
novel,
The Drowning Girl: A Memoir
, will be released by Penguin in 2012. Since 2000, her shorter tales of the weird,
fantastic, and macabre have been collected in several volumes, including
Tales of Pain and Wonder
,
From Weird and Distant Shores
,
To Charles Fort, With Love
,
Alabaster
,
A is for Alien
, and
The Ammonite Violin & Others.
In 2012, Subterranean Press will release a retrospective of her early writing,
Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R.
Kiernan
, vol. 1. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her partner Kathryn. She is
currently working on her next two novels,
Blood Oranges
and
Blue Canary
.

Matthew Kressel
’s fiction has appeared in
Clarkesworld
magazine,
Interzone
,
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
,
Electric Velocipede
,
Apex
magazine,
GUD
magazine, and the anthologies
The People of the Book
,
Naked City
, and
Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories
, as well as other markets. He runs Senses Five Press, which publishes the magazine
Sybil’s Garage
and published the World Fantasy Award-winning
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy
. He cohosts the long-running Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in Manhattan.
And he has been a longtime member of the Altered Fluid writers group, where he regularly
builds and shatters worlds. His Web site is
www.matthewkressel.net.

Katherine Langrish
is the author of several young adult fantasy novels inspired by folklore and legends,
including a trio of historical fantasies set in the Viking age:
Troll Fell
,
Troll Mill
, and
Troll Blood
(republished in 2011 in an omnibus version as
West of the Moon
), and
The Shadow Hunt
(UK title:
Dark Angels
), a tale of ghosts and faeries on the Welsh border in the twelfth century. Her latest
book,
Forsaken
, is a short reimagining of Matthew Arnold’s classic poem “The Forsaken Merman.” Katherine
lives in Oxfordshire, England, and is at work on a YA dystopian fantasy featuring
the characters and world of “Visiting Nelson.” You can visit her Web site at
www.katherinelangrish.co.uk
or join the chat about fairy tales on her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, at
http://steelthistles.blogspot.com
.

Gregory Maguire
is the author of several dozen books for adults and children. His best known titles
for children include
What-the-Dickens
and
Leaping Beauty
. His adult novel,
Wicked
, inspired the Broadway musical of the same name, and was followed by two
New York Times
best-selling sequels in the Wicked Years sequence,
Son of a Witch
and
A Lion Among Men
. The final volume in the series,
Out of Oz
, was published in November 2011. He has also written and performed pieces for NPR’s
“All Things Considered” and “Selected Shorts.” Gregory lives in New England and in
France with his husband, the painter Andy Newman, and their three children.

Garth Nix
is the award-winning author of fantasy novels beloved by young adult readers (including
the Old Kingdom series, the Seventh Tower series, and the Keys to the Kingdom series),
and the YA dystopian science fiction novel
Shade’s Children
. His story for this anthology is set in the universe of
Shade’s Children
, and takes place about ten years prior to the events in the novel. Garth’s books
have appeared on the bestseller lists of
The New York Times
,
Publishers Weekly
,
The Guardian
,
The Sunday Times
, and
The Australian
, and his work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. He lives in a Sydney
beach suburb with his wife and two children. Visit him online at
garthnix.com
.

Before writing her
New York Times
best-selling novel,
Life as We Knew It
,
Susan Beth Pfeffer
didn’t know what a dystopian novel was. She still doesn’t know how to spell dystopian,
but that hasn’t prevented her from writing two more novels,
The Dead and the Gone
and
This World We Live In
in the same genre. Her most recent book,
Blood Wounds
, is a realistic YA novel, perhaps because she has no trouble spelling realistic.
She lives in New York State, and you can fine her online at
http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com
.

Beth Revis
’s debut novel,
Across the Universe
, is the first book in a science fiction trilogy for young adult readers. Like her
story for this anthology, the novel explores life on the spaceship
Godspeed
under Eldest rule. The second book of the trilogy,
A Million Suns
, is forthcoming. Beth lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dog, and
believes space is nowhere near the final frontier. You’ll find her online at
www.bethrevis.com
, and on the dystopian blog, The League of Extraordinary Writers (
http://leaguewriters.blogspot.com

Carrie Ryan
is the
New York Times
best-selling author of several critically acclaimed short stories and novels, including
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
,
The Dead Tossed Waves
, and
The Dark and Hollow Places
. Her first novel was chosen as a Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library
Association, named to the 2010 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age List,
and selected as a Best of the Best Books by the Chicago Public Library. A former litigator,
Carrie now writes full-time and lives with her husband, two fat cats, and one large
dog in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find her online at
www.carrieryan.com
.