Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente
Born	Bethany L. Thomas May 5, 1979 Seattle, Washington
Occupation	Poet, novelist, literary critic
Nationality	American
Alma mater	UC San Diego, Edinburgh University
Genre	Postmodern, fantasy, mythpunk
Notable awards	James Tiptree, Jr. Award (2006), storySouth Million Writers Award (2007), Rhysling Award (2007), Mythopoeic Award (2008), Andre Norton Award (2009)
Website
catherynnemvalente.com

Catherynne M. Valente (born Bethany Thomas, May 5, 1979) is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Andre Norton, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the World Fantasy Award–winning anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, along with numerous Year's Best volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities under the name Bethany L. Thomas as well as in numerous essay collections.

Career

Catherynne M. Valente's novels have been nominated for Hugo, World Fantasy, and Locus awards. Her 2009 book, Palimpsest, won the Lambda Award for GLBT Science Fiction or Fantasy. Her two-volume series The Orphan's Tales won the 2008 Mythopoeic Award, and its first volume, The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden won the 2006 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, was nominated for the 2007 World Fantasy Award. In 2012, Valente's work won 3 Locus Awards: Best Novelette (White Lines on a Green Field), Best Novella (Silently and Very Fast) and Best YA Novel (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making).

In 2011, her children's novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making debuted at #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Its sequel, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, featured at #5 on Time Magazine’s Best Fiction of 2012 list.

In 2009, she donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection in the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.^[1]

She is a regular panelist on the multiple Hugo Award-winning podcast SF Squeecast.^[2]

Multimedia and mythpunk

Valente tours regularly both in America and abroad. She occasionally performs with singer/songwriter SJ Tucker, who along with her own varied discography composes albums based on Valente's work. The pair perform reading concerts throughout North America, often featuring dancers, aerial artists, art auctions featuring jewelry and paintings based on the novels, and other performances.^[3]

Valente is active in the crowdfunding movement of online artists, and her novel The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was the first online, crowdfunded book to win a major literary award before traditional publication.^[4][5][6]

In a 2006 blog post, Valente coined the term mythpunk as a joke for describing her own and other works of challenging folklore-based fantasy.^[7]

Selected works

Novels

• The Labyrinth (2004)
• The Ice Puzzle (2004)
• Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams (2005)
• The Grass-Cutting Sword (2006)
• Palimpsest (2009)
• Deathless (2011)
• Silently and Very Fast (2011)
• Six-Gun Snow White (2013)
• Matryoshka (2015)
• Radiance (2015)
• Speak Easy (2015)^[8]

The Orphan's Tales

• The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (vol. 1) (Oct 2006)
  • Book of the Steppe
  • Book of the Sea
• The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice (vol. 2) (Oct 2007)
  • Book of the Storm
  • Book of the Scald

A Dirge for Prester John

Published by Night Shade Books:

• The Habitation of the Blessed (2010)
• The Folded World (2011)

Fairyland

Published by Feiwel & Friends:

• Prequel: The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While^[9] (2011)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2011)
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (2012)
• The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two (2013)
• The Boy Who Lost Fairyland (2015)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making started out in 2009 as a crowdfunded middle-grade online novel (originally, a fictional children's book in Palimpsest).^[10]
• Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home (2016)

Poetry

• Music of a Proto-Suicide (2004)
• Apocrypha (2005)
• Oracles: A Pilgrimage (2006)
• The Descent of Inanna (2006)
• A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects (May 2008)

Nonfiction

• Introduction to Jane Eyre (Illustrated) (2007)
• "Regeneration X" in Chicks Dig Time Lords (2010)
• Indistinguishable from Magic (2014)

Short fiction

• "The Oracle Alone" Music of a Proto-Suicide (2004)
• "Ghosts of Gunkanjima" Papaveria Press (2005)
• "The Maiden-Tree" Cabinet des Fees (2005)
• "Bones Like Black Sugar" Fantasy Magazine (2005)
• "Psalm of the Second Body" PEN Book of Voices (2005)
• "Ascent Is Not Allowed" The Minotaur in Pamplona (2005)
• "Thread: A Triptych" Lone Star Stories (2006)
• "Urchins, While Swimming" Clarkesworld Magazine (2006)
• "Milk and Apples" Electric Velocipede (2006)
• "Temnaya and the House of Books" Mythic (2006)
• "A Grey and Soundless Tide" Salon Fantastique (2006)
• "A Dirge For Prester John" INTERFICTIONS (2007)
• "The Ballad of the Sinister Mr. Mouth" Lone Star Stories (2007)
• "La Serenissima" Endicott Studio (2007)
• "The Proslogium of the Great Lakes" Farrago's Wainscot (2007)
• "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica" Clarkesworld Magazine (2008)
• "Tales of Beaty and Strangeness: City of Blind Delights" Clockwork Phoenix (2008)
• "The Hanged Man" Farrago's Wainscot (2008)
• "An Anthology of Urban Fantasy: Palimpsest" Paper Cities, ed. Ekaterina Sedia (2008)
• "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" Spectra Pulse Magazine (2008)
• "Golubash, or, Wine-War-Blood-Elegy" Federations (2009)
• "The Secret History of Mirrors" Clockwork Phoenix 2 (2009)
• "A Book of Villainous Tales:A Delicate Architecture" Troll's Eye View (2009)
• "The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew" Clarkesworld Magazine (2009)
• "The Anachronist's Cookbook" Steampunk Tales (2009)
• "A Between Books Anthology:Proverbs of Hell" The Stories in Between (2010)
• "The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" Dark Faith (2010)
• "Secretario" Weird Tales (2010)
• "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" Clarkesworld Magazine (2010)
• "How to Become a Mars Overlord" Lightspeed Magazine (2010)
• "15 Panels Depicting the Sadness of the Baku and the Jotai" Haunted Legends (2010)
• "In the Future When All's Well" Teeth (2011)
• "A Voice Like a Hole" Welcome to Bordertown (2011)
• "The Wolves of Brooklyn" Fantasy Magazine (2011)
• "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While" Tor.com (2011)
• "White Lines on a Green Field" Subterranean Magazine (2011)

Collections

• This Is My Letter to the World: The Omikuji Project, Cycle One (2010)
• Ventriloquism (2010)
• Myths of Origin, Omnibus collection containing The Labyrinth, Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams, The Grass-Cutting Sword, and Under in the Mere (2011)
• The Melancholy of Mechagirl (2013)
• The Bread We Eat in Dreams (2013)

Awards

Year	Award	Work (if applicable)
2006	James Tiptree, Jr. Award	The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (vol. 1)[11]
2007	storySouth Million Writers Award	Urchins, While Swimming, Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 3[12]
2007	World Fantasy Award Nominee (Best Novel)	The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (vol. 1)[13]
2008	Rhysling Award (long poem category)	The Seven Devils of Central California, Farrago's Wainscot Summer 2007
2008	Mythopoeic Award (adult literature)	The Orphan's Tales (series)[14]
2009	World Fantasy Award Nominee (nominee, Best Short Story)	A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica, Clarkesworld Magazine May 2008)[15]
2009	Andre Norton Award	The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making[16]
2010	CultureGeek Readers' Choice Award (Best Web Fiction of the 21st Century)	The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making[17]
2010	Hugo Award for Best Novel (nominee)	Palimpsest[18]
2010	Locus Awards (nominee)	Palimpsest[18]
2010	Lambda Literary Awards	Palimpsest[18]
2012	Hugo Award for Best Fancast	SF Squeecast (with Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, and Elizabeth Bear)[19]
2012	Nebula Award for Best Novelette (nominee)	"Fade to White"[20]
2012	Time Magazine Top 10 Fiction Books	The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There[21]
2012	Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book	The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making[22]
2014	Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book	The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two[23]

References

1. Thomas, Lynne M. (March 20, 2009). "Hugos, Catherynne Valente Archives, and CLIR Reports". Confessions of a Curator. Archived from the original on 2012-11-13. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
2. "List of regular contributors". SF Squeecast blog. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
3. "TWO ARTISTS, MANY STRIPES, ONE VOICE: AN INTERVIEW WITH S.J. TUCKER & CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE". The Interstitial Arts Foundation. March 31, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
4. "2010 Nebula Awards". The Locus Index to SF Awards. 2010. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
5. "Nebula Awards Results". Science Fiction Awards Watch. May 15, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
6. "The Big Idea: Catherynne M. Valente". Whatever: All Cake and Hand Grenades. May 12, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
7. "A Rose in Twelve Names". Rules for Anchorites. 2006-03-28. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
8. "Announcing SPEAK EASY, a New Novella by Catherynne M. Valente". Subterranean Press. January 4, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
9. Valente, Catherynne M. (July 27, 2011). "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While by Catherynne M. Valente". Tor.com. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
10. Valente, Catherynne M. "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – About This Book". Archived from the original on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
11. "2006 Winners". tiptree.org. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
12. "storySouth Million Writers Award". www.storysouth.com. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
13. World Fantasy Convention (2010). "Award Winners and Nominees". Retrieved February 4, 2011.
14. "Mythopoeic Awards - 2008 - Mythopoeic Society". Mythopoeic Society. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
15. "World Fantasy Awards -- Complete Listing". www.worldfantasy.org. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
16. "sfadb: Andre Norton Award 2010". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
17. "Nebula Awards Interview: Catherynne M. Valente - SFWA". SFWA. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
18. "sfadb : Catherynne M. Valente Awards". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
19. The Hugo Awards: 2012 Hugo Award Winners September 2, 2012, Accessed September 3, 2012
20. "Congratulations to the 2012 Nebula Award Winners". Tor.com. Tor. May 18, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
21. "Top 10 Fiction Books". Time Magazine. December 4, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
22. "2012 Locus Award Winners". Locus Online News. June 16, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
23. "Locus Young Adult Award". Worlds without End. Retrieved April 6, 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Blog
• Catherynne M. Valente at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• 2010 Interview on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast
• Catherynne M. Valente at Library of Congress Authorities, with 10 catalog records