Ellen Kushner

(b.1955)

Ellen Kushner is an American writer of fantasy novels, and the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, produced by WGBH in Boston and distributed by Public Radio International.

Kushner was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She lives in New York City with her wife and sometime collaborator.

Awards: Mythopoeic (2003), WFA (1991) see all

Genres: Fantasy, Children's Fiction

Series

Swords of Riverside
   1. Swordspoint (1987)
   2. The Privilege of the Sword (2006)
   3. The Fall of the Kings (2002) (with Delia Sherman)

Novels

   Thomas the Rhymer (1990)
   St. Nicholas and the Valley Beyond (1994)
   The Golden Dreydl (2007)
   The Golden Dreidel (2021)

Anthologies edited

   Basilisk (1980)
   The Horns of Elfland (1997) (with Donald G Keller and Delia Sherman)
   Welcome to Bordertown (2011) (with Holly Black)

Series contributed to

Choose Your Own Adventure
   47. Outlaws of Sherwood Forest (1985)
   56. The Enchanted Kingdom (1986) (with Judith Mitchell)
   58. Statue of Liberty Adventure (1986)
   63. Mystery of the Secret Room (1986)
   86. Knights of the Round Table (1988)

Tremontaine
   1. Arrivals (2016)
   13. Departures (2016)
   Tremontaine (2017)
   Tremontaine: The Complete Season 1 (2017) (with others)
   Tremontaine: The Complete Season 2 (2017) (with others)
   Tremontaine: The Complete Season 3 (2018) (with others)
   Tremontaine: The Complete Season 4 (2018) (with others)

Books containing stories by Ellen Kushner

Far Out (2021)
Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy
edited by
Paula Guran

Silk & Steel (2020)
A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology
edited by
Janine A Southard

The Book of Swords: Part II (2018)
edited by
Gardner Dozois

More books

Awards

	2007 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel : The Privilege of the Sword
	2003 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature : The Fall of the Kings
	1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel : Thomas the Rhymer
	1991 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award : Thomas the Rhymer

Award nominations

	2017 Locus Award for Best Anthology (nominee) : Tremontaine
	2012 Locus Award for Best Anthology (nominee) : Welcome to Bordertown
	2007 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (nominee) : The Privilege of the Sword
	2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel (nominee) : The Privilege of the Sword
	2003 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (nominee) : The Fall of the Kings
	1999 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story (nominee) : The Death of the Duke
	1998 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (nominee) : The Fall of the Kings [short story]
	1991 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (nominee) : Thomas the Rhymer
	1988 Locus Award for Best First Novel (nominee) : Swordspoint

Ellen Kushner recommends

Everybody's Perfect (2026)
Jo Walton
"I am in awe of this book. Jo Walton is a writer's writer. I couldn't stop turning pages, marveling at the unexpected, vastly rewarding twists and turns of her misty Serenissima with its rogues and beggars, seers and sailors, and genders of all description. Whatever she invites us along on, we find ourselves wiser than when we began, with more insight into our own world through the one she's crafted for us."

An Accident of Dragons (2026)
(Tales of Summer, book 1)
Cheri Radke
"A miracle of the cozy and the numinous: a truly alien dragon, glitteringly silver, with a bunch of human characters you just want to hang out with so you can try on clothes and talk about life together."

Lady's Knight (2025)
(Lady's Knight, book 1)
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
"Sparkles with wit and romance! So many quotable lines. Not to mention the sexiest gown-lacing scene in modern literature. Like its characters, Lady's Knight is endlessly clever and resourceful."

A Far Better Thing (2025)
H G Parry
"This book is perfect. Human changelings toil in revolutionary Paris and Dickens' London for the world's scariest fairy masters, just glad to be out of the Realm. A stage magician who excels at true magic uncovers a book with claws that our dissolute hero must fight with a sword. H. G. Parry is a brilliant writer who kept me on the edge of my seat, gulping down after page while still relishing all the flavors of her delicious prose."

The Court of Shadows (2023)
(Vampyria Saga, book 1)
Victor Dixen
"A brilliant and brave young heroine who is still realistically vulnerable, in a world of vampires who really do want to kill people - and yet retain their creepy fascination. Read this to find out why Victor Dixen's thrilling series is a huge bestseller in France. I can't wait to read the next one!"

The Master of Samar (2023)
Melissa Scott
"Intricate and elaborate scheming both civil and magical, in a wonderfully-realized city. I am in awe!"

Never the Wind (2022)
Francesco Dimitri
"This book is so good that I am speechless. Staggeringly good! An extraordinarily powerful work. Dimitri casts his net into the sea of myth, and brings up a remarkable catch. Family, friendship, horror, humor, wit and deception - I have seldom read a book so powerful."

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good (2021)
Nancy Werlin
"I love this book like no contemporary YA has ever been loved before! It's about finding your tribe. And what it feels like when you do. And how it changes you. Nancy Werlin naturally has to invent a series for her kids to be obsessed with: virus-hunters in space (and she wrote this 2 years ago!) - a renegade ship captained by a middle-aged Black woman and an all-female crew of physicians except for one mysterious man ... and two who share one body. Just reading bits of it is thrilling! She also goes deeper into what it means for each generation of women to see themselves in roles like Uhura, Princess Leia ... and even Squirrel Girl. I'm laughing on one page, sighing in awe and wonder on the next."

Sistersong (2021)
Lucy Holland
"Astonishing!"

All the Murmuring Bones (2021)
A G Slatter
"Like J.R.R. Tolkien, Slatter’s taken her personal invented mythos and crafted a world around it that is at once familiar and deeply strange. Lush and chilling, eerie and exquisite, brutal and elegant… I defy anyone to stop turning pages until they’ve come to the end."

A Tip for the Hangman (2021)
Allison Epstein
"The Christopher Marlowe book we’ve been waiting for! Here is the sexy, witty, self-destructive genius who can’t stay out of trouble, blazing through an Elizabethan period that comes vividly to life in Epstein's well-researched novel. Epstein's sentences shine, with nothing fussy or ‘Ye Olde’ about them. More than once I was stopped dead by a sentence that nailed me in my tracks with its insight and clarity."

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (2015)
(Masquerade , book 1)
Seth Dickinson
"Stunning! There are moments that take my breath away."

Wylding Hall (2015)
Elizabeth Hand
"By turns comic, elegiac, sexy, romantic, melancholy, and downright chilling, Wylding Hall sweeps us along from swinging London to the terrifying gates of Faerie and into the present—where all spells must be paid for."

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent (2008)
(Mrs. Quent, book 1)
Galen Beckett
"I loved reading this piquant page-turner of a retro-modernist fantasy novel. But it's more than just a rattling good time. Like its characters, it is not merely devastatingly clever, but has a heart and a soul."

Trash Sex Magic (2004)
Jennifer Stevenson
"Ambitious, phantasmagorical, with images that burn into your brain and stay there."

The Well-Favored Man (1993)
(Kingdom of Argylle, book 1)
Elizabeth Willey
"A compelling tale to rank with Roger Zelazny's Amber novels."

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