Wearing many hats

I am interested in many things—and I have been lucky enough to find ways to make a living that let me explore my many interests. My novels and short stories are like snowflakes—no two are alike. I realize that this makes me a marketing director’s nightmare. (I can say this with confidence because I have been a marketing director.) And yet, despite my apparent inability to focus on creating a predictable product, my novels and short stories have won a number of awards, including two Nebula Awards, the Philip K. Dick Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Seiun Award. (See below for more details.)

My books about science for children (and some of the toys that go with those books) have also won awards from a rather dizzying variety of institutions, including the American Institute of Physics, Good Housekeeping magazine, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Family Fun Magazine, and Dr. Toy.

With Karen Joy Fowler, I co-founded the Otherwise Award (formerly known as the Tiptree Award), which is presented annually to works of speculative fiction that explore and expand our understanding of gender.

Interviews

If you’d like to know more about the thinking behind my work, check out these articles.

I recommend this lengthy interview in SF Signal for an overview of my work.

Open Book Society interviewed me about two stories — A Cartographic Analysis of the Dream State and Love and Sex among the Invertebrates.

Teen Book Review had questions about The Wild Girls, my children’s book.

Awards

Here are some awards I’ve won. From left to right: Christopher Award for Wild Girls, Philip K. Dick Award for Points of Departure, Nebula for Rachel in Love, Seiun Award for There and Back Again, World Fantasy Award for Bones, Nebula for The Falling Woman, and Theodore Sturgeon Award for Rachel in Love. The World Fantasy Award, a bust of H.P. Lovecraft, wears a batter’s helmet in the spring and summer and a Santa hat in the fall and winter. Nothing like a well-dressed award to put a smile on my face.

Awards for fiction: winning works

The Wild Girls (novel, Viking, 2007)

• Winner of the Christopher Award in the category of “Books for Young People”

• Winner of the Book of the Year Award in Children’s Literature (presented by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association)

• Selected as one of thirty 2008 Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts

• Recommended by the Amelia Bloomer Project (a list of feminist works selected by a task force of the American Library Association)

• Finalist for the Cybils Awards for Middle Grade novel.

Bones (novella published in Asimov’s magazine, May 1990

• Winner of the World Fantasy Award

• Nominated for Hugo Award and Nebula Award

The Falling Woman (novel, Tor, 1987)

• Winner of the Nebula Award

• Nominated for the Mythopoeic Award

Points of Departure (short story collection, Bantam Spectra, 1990)

• Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback original

Rachel in Love (novelette published in Asimov’s magazine, Apr 1987)

• Winner of the Nebula Award

• Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

• Winner of the Locus Awards

• Winner of the Asimov’s magazine reader poll

• Nominated for the Hugo Award

Awards for fiction: nominated works

An American Childhood (novella published in Asimov’s magazine, Apr 1993)

• Nominated for the Hugo Award, placed 7th in Locus Awards and Asimov’s magazine reader poll

There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell (novel, Tor, 1999)

• Winner of the Seiun Award for Japanese translation

The City, Not Long After (novel, Doubleday Foundation, 1990)

• Short-listed for Arthur C. Clarke Award

• Nominated for Mythopoeic Award

Dead Men on TV (story in Full Spectrum, edited by Lou Aronica and Shawna McCarthy, Bantam Books, 1988)

• Nominated for Nebula Award

Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates (story in Alien Sex, edited by Ellen Datlow, Dutton, 1990)

• Nominated for the Nebula Award

Nadya: The Wolf Chronicles (novel, Tor, 1996)

• On the honor list for the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award

Awards for nonfiction

Star Wars Folded Flyers (Klutz, 2012)

• Winner of the Parent’s Choice FunStuff Award

• Winner of the Tillywig Toy Top Fun Award

Klutz Guide to the Galaxy (Klutz, 2011)

• Winner of the American Institute of Physics Award for Science Writing

• Winner of the Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products Award

• Winner of the National Parenting Publications Gold Award

• Winner of the Good Housekeeping magazine’s Best Toys of the Year

• Winner of the Great Schools Golden Apple Award

Make A Mummy, Shrink a Head, and Other Useful Skills (Klutz, 2011)

• Chosen for the Parent’s Choice Recommended Seal

Invasion of the Bristlebots (Klutz, 2009)

• Chosen as #1 Top Toy of the Year by Disney’s FamilyFun magazine

• Selected for Good Housekeeping magazine’s Best Toys of the Year

Exploratopia (Little, Brown, 2008)

• Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books and Films Prize for Excellence in Science Books

Global Climate Change Research Explorer (Website, 2004)

• Winner of the Pirelli Award for best environmental education website

Book of Impossible Objects (Klutz, 2012)

• Winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award

•  Winner of a Family Fun Magazine Boredom Buster Award

The World According to Klutz (Klutz, 2013)

• Winner of a National Parenting Publications Silver Award

• Featured as one of top-ten holiday gifts in Family Fun Magazine