Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear
Bear in 2017
Born	Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky (1971-09-22) September 22, 1971 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Education	University of Connecticut (non-degree)
Occupation	Novelist
Spouse(s)	Christopher Kindred (2000-2007); Scott Lynch (2016–)
Writing career
Genre	Speculative fiction
Website	Official website

Elizabeth Bear (born Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky, September 22, 1971) is an award-winning American author who works primarily in the speculative and science fiction genres. She is one of a small number of writers who have gone on, after winning Astounding Science Fiction's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, to win multiple Hugo Awards for their fiction writing. She won the John W. Campbell Award in 2005, going on to receive, for instance, the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Tideline", and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "Shoggoths in Bloom".

Early life and education

Bear was born Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky, in Hartford, Connecticut on September 22, 1971.

She is regularly referred to as having "attended the University of Connecticut, where she studied English and anthropology, though she did not take a degree."

Career

Bear at Eurocon/Swecon in 2011

As Locus magazine states in an introduction to an interview with her in 2006, Bear "has worked as a technical writer, a stable hand, a reporter, and in various office jobs", going on to say that "she sold a few stories to small-press publications in the [19]90s" and "only began writing seriously in 2001".

Fiction writing

Bear's first novel, Hammered, was published in January 2005. It was followed by Scardown in July, and Worldwired in November of the same year. The trilogy features Canadian Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey, who is also the main character in the short story "Gone to Flowers". Hammered won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2006.

The Chains That You Refuse, a collection of her short fiction, was published May 2006 by Night Shade Books. Blood and Iron, the first book in the fantasy series entitled The Promethean Age, debuted June 27, 2006.

Teaching, and other media work and activities

As of this date, Bear was an instructor at the Viable Paradise writer's workshop, and has taught at Clarion West Writers Workshop.

As of this date, she was a writer at the ongoing Shadow Unit website/pseudo-TV series, and she has been a regular panelist on the podcast SF Squeecast.

In 2008, she donated her papers to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.

Reception

Annalee Newitz of io9 wrote that Bear "is famous for combining high-octane military/spy tales with eccentric and subversive subplots".

Awards and recognition

The "Award Bibliography" for Bear at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists over a 100 entries for her works that have nominated or received awards in her genre from 2004-2026, awards that include recognition on repeat occasions by Asimov's Reader, Cambell–Astounding Science Fiction, Lambda, Locus, BSFA, Gaylactic Spectrum, Gemmell and Hugo awards.

Bear is one of a small number of writers who have gone on to win multiple Hugo Awards for fiction after winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the list of others include C. J. Cherryh, Orson Scott Card, Spider Robinson, Ted Chiang, and Mary Robinette Kowal.

Bear and her fellow contributors' work at the podcast SF Squeecast were recognised in 2012 and 2013 by the Hugo Award for Best Fancast.

Awards for Elizabeth Bear

Work	Year & Award	Category	Result	Ref.
Hammered	2005 Astounding Award for Best New Writer		Won
Two Dreams on Trains	2005 BSFA Award	Short Fiction	Nominated
Sounding	2006 BSFA Award	Short Fiction	Nominated
Carnival	2006 Philip K. Dick Award		Won (Special Citation)
	2007 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
	2007 Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction	LGBT Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy	Nominated
	2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Undertow	2007 Philip K. Dick Award		Finalist
	2008 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
Wax	2006 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
	2007 Interzone Readers Poll	Story	8th Place
Wane	2007 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
Cryptic Coloration	2008 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
New Amsterdam	2008 Locus Award	Collection	Nominated
	2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Orm the Beautiful	2008 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
	2008 WSFA Small Press Award		Shortlisted
Tideline	2008 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
	2008 Asimov's Readers' Poll	Short Story	Won
	2008 Hugo Award	Short Story	Won
	2008 Theodore Sturgeon Award	Short Science Fiction	Won
Whiskey and Water	2008 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
	2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
A Companion to Wolves (with Sarah Monette)	2008 Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction	LGBT Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy	Nominated
Dust	2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
The Stratford Man	2009 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Won
All the Windwracked Stars	2009 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Shoggoths in Bloom	2009 Hugo Award	Novelette	Won
	2009 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
Shoggoths in Bloom (Collection)	2013 Locus Award	Collection	Won
Boojum	2009 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
By the Mountain Bound	2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Seven for a Secret	2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Chill	2010 Philip K. Dick Award		Finalist
	2011 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
Cuckoo (with Leah Bobet & Emma Bull)	2010 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
Mongoose	2010 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
Bone and Jewel Creatures	2011 World Fantasy Award	Novella	Nominated
	2011 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
Range of Ghosts	2012 Otherwise Award		Honor
	2013 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
METAtropolis: Cascadia	2012 Audie Award	Original Work	Won
SF Squeecast	2012 Hugo Award	Fancast	Won
	2013 Hugo Award	Fancast	Won
Dolly	2012 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
Grail	2012 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
	2012 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
Faster Gun	2013 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns	2013 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
	2013 Asimov's Readers' Poll	Novella	4th Place
No Decent Patrimony	2013 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
The Deeps of the Sky	2013 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward	2013 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
Covenant	2015 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
Steles of the Sky	2015 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
The Hand is Quicker	2015 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
This Chance Planet	2015 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
Karen Memory	2016 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
	2016 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards	Novel	Nominated
The Heart's Filthy Lesson	2016 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
The Stone in the Skull	2018 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
Okay, Glory	2019 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
The Red-Stained Wings	2020 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
A Time to Reap	2020 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
Ancestral Night	2020 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
Erase, Erase, Erase	2020 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
Lest We Forget	2020 Locus Award	Short Story	Nominated
Machine	2021 Locus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
	2021 Dragon Awards	Science Fiction	Nominated
	2021 Neffy Awards	Novel	Won
The Best of Elizabeth Bear	2021 Locus Award	Collection	Nominated
A Blessing of Unicorns	2022 Asimov's Readers' Poll	Novella	Won
	2022 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
The Red Mother	2022 Locus Award	Novelette	Nominated
White Space	2026 Hugo Award	Series	Finalist

Popular culture

The opening quote in the seaason 6 Criminal Minds episode "Lauren", episode 18,

The secret to lying is to believe with all your heart. That goes for lying to yourself even more than lying to another.

was a quotation of the opening lines of Bear's book, Seven for a Secret.

Personal life

As of May 2020, Bear had been married twice; she was married to Christopher Kindred from 2000-2007, and after entering into a relationship with Scott Lynch in 2011—a "fantasy writer and firefighter" whose work includes novels—the two married in October 2016. As of that date, Bear was living with Lynch in Western Massachusetts, although it has also been stated that she keeps a home in Connecticut.

In 2021, Bear announced that she had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

Bibliography

Novels

• Carnival (November 2006, Bantam Spectra)
• Undertow (August 2007, Bantam Spectra)
• Bone and Jewel Creatures (novella) (2010, Subterranean Press)
• The Cobbler's Boy (2018)

The Jenny Casey trilogy

• Hammered (January 2005, Bantam Spectra)
• Scardown (July 2005, Bantam Spectra)
• Worldwired (November 2005, Bantam Spectra)

The Promethean Age

• Blood and Iron (June 2006, ROC)
• Whiskey and Water (July 2007, ROC)
• The Stratford Man:
  • Volume I: Ink and Steel (July 2008, ROC)
  • Volume II: Hell and Earth (August 2008, ROC)
• One Eyed Jack (November 2013, Prime Books)

Jacob's Ladder trilogy

• Dust (December 2007, Spectra)
• Chill (February 2010, Spectra)
• Grail (February 2011, Spectra)

The Edda of Burdens

• All the Windwracked Stars (November 2008, Tor Books)
• By the Mountain Bound (November 2009, Tor Books)
• The Sea thy Mistress (February 2011, Tor)

The Iskryne series

• A Companion to Wolves, with Sarah Monette (October 2007, Tor Books)
• The Tempering of Men, with Sarah Monette (August 2011, Tor Books)
• An Apprentice to Elves, with Sarah Monette (June 25, 2015, Tor Books)

New Amsterdam series

• New Amsterdam (May 2007, Subterranean Press)
• Seven for a Secret (novella; March 2009, Subterranean Press)
• The White City (novella; 2011, Subterranean Press)
• Ad Eternum (novella; February 2012, Subterranean Press)
• Garrett Investigates (November 2012, Subterranean Press)

Eternal Sky Trilogy

• Range of Ghosts (March 2012, Tor Books)
• Shattered Pillars (2013, Tor Books)
• Steles of the Sky (2014, Tor Books)

The Lotus Kingdoms

• The Stone in the Skull (2017, Tor Books)
• The Red-Stained Wings (2019, Tor Books)
• The Origin of Storms (2022, Tor Books)

Karen Memory

• Karen Memory (2015, Tor-Forge)
• Stone Mad (2018, Tor-Forge)
• Angel Maker (2025, Sobbing Squonk Press)

White Space

• Ancestral Night (2018, Gallery / Saga Press)
• Machine (2020, Gallery / Saga Press)
• The Folded Sky (2025, Saga Press)

Short fiction

Collections

• The Chains That You Refuse (May 2006, Night Shade Books)
• Jewels and Stones (2010)
• Shoggoths in Bloom (October 2012, Prime Books)
• The Best of Elizabeth Bear (2020)

Short stories

• Love-In-Idleness (1998) (In anthology Midsummer Night's Dreams: One Story, Many Tales edited by M. Christian)
• The Company of Four (2000) (E.B.'s The Chains that You Refuse; also appeared in Scheherazade issue #20 in 2000.)
• Speak! (2003) (In On Spec magazine, Winter 2003)
• Tiger! Tiger! (2003) (In anthology Shadows Over Baker Street (2003), edited by John Pelan & Michael Reaves.)
• Ice (2003) (Ideomancer, Apr. 2003 & (Lod: Polish-language version) in Nowa Fantastyka #7, Summer 2004.)
• The Chains That You Refuse (2004) (ChiZine magazine, Apr.-June 2004)
• This Tragic Glass (2004) (Sci Fiction webzine, Apr. 2004)
• Old Leatherwings (2004)
• Seven Dragons Mountains (2004) (Appeared in anthology All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, edited by Jay Lake & David Moles.)
• Sleeping Dogs Lie (2004) (Flytrap magazine, Nov. 2004)
• When You Visit the Magoebaskloof Hotel, Be Certain Not to Miss the Samango Monkeys (2004) (Interzone 195, Nov/Dec 2004)
• Los Empujadores Furiosos (2005) (On Spec magazine, Winter 2006)
• The House of the Rising Sun (2005) (Anthology By Blood We Live, edited by John Joseph Adams & in The Third Alternative #42, Summer 2005)
• Wax (2005) (Interzone #201, Nov/Dec 2005 & reprinted in Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006 edition, June 2006)
• Two Dreams on Trains (2005) (Strange Horizons webzine, Jan. 2005; reprinted in Year's Best Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (July 2006) & reprinted in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology. Spanish-language version, Dos Sueños con Trenes, appeared in Cuasar #42, Marzo 2006)
• Follow Me Light (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, Jan. 2005, reprinted in Best New Paranormal Romance (Nov. 2006) & Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (Sept. 2006)
• Botticelli (2005) (The Agony Column, Feb. 2005)
• And the Deep Blue Sea (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, May 2005 & anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams)
• Long Cold Day (2005) (Sci Fiction webzine, Sept. 2005)
• The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe (2006) (Subterranean Magazine #4, 2006)
• One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King (2005)
• Gone to Flowers (2006) (Appeared in anthology Eidolon I, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Jeremy G. Byrne)
• High Iron (2006)
• Wane (2006) (Interzone #203 Mar/Apr 2006)
• Love Among the Talus (2006) (Strange Horizons, Dec. 2006)
• L'Esprit d'Escalier: Not a Play in One Act (2006)
• Lucifugous (2006) (Subterranean Magazine #5 (2006)
• Schrödinger's Cat Chases the Super String (2006)
• The Ile of Dogges (with Sarah Monette) (2006) (Aeon 7, 2006)
• The Cold Blacksmith (2006) (Jim Baen's Universe, June 2006)
• Sounding (2006) (Strange Horizons, Sept. 2006)
• The Devil You Don't (2006) (Amberzine 11)
• Stella Nova (2006)
• Limerent (2007) (Subterranean Magazine #6, 2007)
• Orm the Beautiful (Clarkesworld Magazine, Jan. 2007)
• The Something-Dreaming Game (2007) (Fast Forward 1)
• War Stories (2007) (Jim Baen's Universe, Feb. 2007)
• Cryptic Coloration (2007) (Jim Baen's Universe ebook magazine, June 2007)
• Tideline (2007) (Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2007)
• Black Is the Color (2007) (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2007)
• The Rest of Your Life in a Day (2007) (Jim Baen's Universe, Oct. 2007)
• Inelastic Collisions (2007) (Appeared in anthology Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural edited by Ellen Datlow)
• The Ladies (2007) (Coyote Wild, Dec. 2007)
• Abjure the Realm (2007) (Coyote Wild, Winter 2007 & the anthology The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry edited by Sean Wallace)
• Annie Webber (2008) (Nature magazine, Jan. 2008)
• Boojum (with Sarah Monette) (2008) (Anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer)
• Hobnoblin Blues (2008) (Realms of Fantasy magazine, Feb. 2008)
• Shoggoths in Bloom (2008) (Asimov's Science Fiction, Mar. 2008)
• Your Collar (2008) (Subterranean Magazine, 2008)
• Sonny Liston Takes the Fall (2008) (Anthology The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow)
• The Red in the Sky Is Our Blood (2008) (Anthology METAtropolis edited by John Scalzi)
• The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder (2008)
• Snow Dragons (2009) (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2009)
• Mongoose (with Sarah Monette) (2009) (Lovecraft Unbound (2009, Dark Horse Comics. Reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection)
• Formidable Terrain (2009) (H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror, Spring 2009)
• Cuckoo (2009) (with Leah Bobet & Emma Bull)
• Swell (2009) (Anthology Eclipse Three edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• The Horrid Glory of Its Wings (2009) (At Tor.com/Dec. 2009)
• Dolly (2011)
• The Romance (2011) (Anthology Supernatural Noir edited by Ellen Datlow)
• Gods of the Forge (2011)
• The Leavings of the Wolf (2011)
• King Pole, Gallows Pole, Bottle Tree (2011) (Anthology Naked City: New Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow)
• Needles (2011)
• The Salt Sea and the Sky (2012) (Anthology Brave New Love: 15 Dystopian Tales of Desire edited by Paula Guran)
• ad eternum (2012)
• The Slaughtered Lamb (2012)
• Faster Gun (2012)
• Form and Void (2012) (Webzine Fireside, Winter 2012)
• The Wreck of the "Charles Dexter Ward (with Sarah Monette) (2012) (Anthology New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran)
• The Death of Terrestrial Radio (2012)
• The Deeps of the Sky (2012)
• No Decent Patrimony (2012) (Asimov's Science Fiction, Feb. 2015)
• The Governess (2013)
• Book of Iron (2013)
• The Hand is Quicker (2014)
• No Place to Dream, but a Place to Die (2014)
• You've Never Seen Everything (2014) (Appeared in anthology The End Is Now edited by John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey)
• Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle (2014) (Appeared in anthology Dead Man's Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West, edited by John Joseph Adams)
• Covenant (2014)
• In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns (2012) (Appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Jan. 2012 & reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois)
• This Chance Planet (2014)
• Terrior (2014)
• The Bone War(2015)
• The Heart's Filthy Lesson (2015) (Appeared in anthology Old Venus edited by Gardner Dozois & George R. R. Martin)
• In Libres (2015)
• Margin of Survival (2015) (Appeared in anthology The End Is Now edited by John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey)
• And the Balance in Blood (2015)
• Skin in the Game (2015)
• What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed (2017) (Appears in anthology Resist: Tales from a Future Worth Fighting Against, edited by Hugh Howey)
• Perfect Gun (2017)
• The King's Evil (2017) (Appears in anthology The Book of Swords edited by Gardner Dozois)
• No Work of Mine (2018) (Appeared in the anthology The Book of Magic edited by Gardner Dozois)
• She Still Loves the Dragon (2018)
• Okay, Glory (2018)
• We Have Always Died in the Castle (2018)
• Bug's A-Life (2018)
• Particulates (2018) (Appears in anthology Particulates edited by Nalo Hopkinson)
• Deriving Life (2019)
• Lest We Forget (2019)
• No Moon and Flat Calm (2019)
• Bullet Point (2019) (Appears in the anthology Wastelands: The New Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams)
• Soft Edges (2019) (Appeared in webzine anthology Current Futures: A Sci-fi Ocean Anthology edited by Ann VanderMeer)
• Erase, Erase, Erase (2019)
• A Time to Reap (2019)
• Hacksilver (2020)
• On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera (2020)
• A Blessing of Unicorns (2020) (Appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Sept.-Oct. 2021)
• The Red Mother (2021)
• The Part You Throw Away (2022)
• Twin Strangers (2022) (Appeared in anthology Tasting Light: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions edited by A. R. Capetta & Wade Roush)
• Here Instead of There (2023) (Appeared in anthology Communications Breakdown: SF Stories About the Future of Connection edited by Jonathan Strahan. Read aloud on podcast Escape Pod, part I Oct. 2, 2025 and part II on Oct. 9, 2025.)

Poetry

• "Li Bai Drowns While Embracing the Moon" in Not One of Us, Issue 42.
• "Seven Steeds" in Lone Star Stories, Issue 29, Oct. 2008.
• "e.e. 'doc' cummings" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2003.
• Hel on a Headland in Uncanny Magazine (Jan-Feb 2023)

Essays

• "We'll Make Great Pets" in Chicks Dig Time Lords (2010, Mad Norwegian Press)

External links

• Official website
• Interview at Clarkesworld Magazine, May 2010
• Interview at SFRevu.com, April 2019
• Elizabeth Bear at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Elizabeth Bear at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction