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Ellen Kushner

Goodreads Author

Born

in Washington, DC , The United States

October 06

Website

http://www.ellenkushner.com

Twitter

EllenKushner

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mannerpunk, Gay and Lesbian

Member Since

February 2008

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Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.

A graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line.

In addition, her short fiction appears regularly Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.

A graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line.

In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies. Her stories have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish.

Upon moving to Boston, she became a radio host for WGBH-FM. In 1996, she created Sound & Spirit, PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. With Ellen as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010; many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.

As a live stage performer, her solo spoken word works include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra). In 2008, Vital Theatre commissioned her to script a full-scale theatrical version. The Klezmer Nutcracker played to sold-out audiences in New York City, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam.

In 2012, Kushner entered the world of audiobooks, narrating and co-producing “illuminated” versions of all three of the “Riverside” novels with SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents at Audible.com—and winning a 2013 Audie Award for Swordspoint.

Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited with Holly Black), and The Witches of Lublin, a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom (which one Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards in 2012). In 2015 she contributed to and oversaw the creation of the online Riverside series prequel Tremontaine for Serial Box with collaborators Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese and Patty Bryant.

A dauntless traveler, Ellen Kushner has been a guest of honor at conventions all over the world. She regularly teaches writing at the prestigious Clarion Workshop and the Hollins University Graduate Program in Children’s Literature.

Ellen Kushner is a co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization supporting work that falls between genre categories. She lives in New York City with author and educator Delia Sherman, a lot of books, airplane and theater ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever. ...more

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Ellen Kushner’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 51,405 ratings · 5,666 reviews · 141 distinct works • Similar authors

	Swordspoint (Riverside, #1) 3.78 avg rating — 9,720 ratings — published 1987 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Privilege of the Sword (Riverside, #2) 3.92 avg rating — 5,191 ratings — published 2006 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thomas the Rhymer 3.87 avg rating — 3,595 ratings — published 1990 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fall of the Kings (Riverside, #3) by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Delia Sherman (Goodreads Author) 3.65 avg rating — 2,233 ratings — published 2002 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tremontaine: The Complete Season One (Tremontaine #1.1-1.13) by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Alaya Dawn Johnson (Goodreads Author), Malinda Lo (Goodreads Author) 3.98 avg rating — 483 ratings — published 2016 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arrivals (Tremontaine, #1.1) by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Alaya Dawn Johnson (Goodreads Author), Malinda Lo (Goodreads Author) 3.96 avg rating — 241 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Man with the Knives by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Tom Canty (Illustrator) 4.26 avg rating — 171 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tremontaine: The Complete Season Two (Tremontaine, #2.1-2.13) by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Joel Derfner (Goodreads Author), Tessa Gratton (Goodreads Author) 4.31 avg rating — 140 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Outlaws of Sherwood Forest (Choose Your Own Adventure, #47) 3.66 avg rating — 119 ratings — published 1985 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Departures (Tremontaine, #1.13) by Ellen Kushner (Goodreads Author), Malinda Lo (Goodreads Author), Racheline Maltese (Goodreads Author) 4.41 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Ellen Kushner's Blog

New Swordspoint Story, Last-Minute Gifts, and a Riddle

I'm not usually much of a short story writer, but I just published a new one in the new anthology "Silk & Steel," edited by Janine A. Southard. It's another in the "family saga" that my first novel, Swordspoint, seems to have spawned. You can get it as a last-minute gift for someone in e-book form.

And speaking of last-minute gifts. . . . Here is my new riddle:

I am the gift that cannot be wrapped.
W Read more of this blog post »

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Published on December 21, 2020 11:16

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Holly Black is one of the YA world's premier experts on faeries (she also has the pointy ears to prove it). Her enchanting books include The...

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Ellen Kushner is now friends with winifer skattebol
Dec 22, 2022 08:38AM · like
Ellen Kushner and 1 other person liked Bailey's review of A College of Magics (A College of Magics, #1): "I haven’t read this book in probably a decade, and I’m so pleased at how well it holds up. Beautifully plotted and bittersweet, interesting magic system, unforgettable characters—and I somehow JUST learned there’s a sequel! "
Dec 10, 2021 08:32PM · see review
Ellen Kushner and 1 other person liked Flora's review of A College of Magics (A College of Magics, #1): "As though Diana Wynne Jones had written a Ruritanian romance. And now my heart hurts."
Dec 10, 2021 08:32PM · see review
Ellen Kushner and 1 other person liked Catherine's review of A College of Magics (A College of Magics, #1): "It's unfortunate that this book carries the comparison to Harry Potter, since I think it honestly ruins many people's experience of the book. That being said, I have read and reread this book several times, since upon finishing it for the first time t" Read more of this review »
Dec 10, 2021 08:32PM · see review
Ellen Kushner answered Goodreads's question: What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book? You really want to know? Seriously? OK, here goes: Why did my college boyfriend, who went off with my best friend after we broke up at the end of our senior year - why did the two of them act like they were really mad at me? Like I'd done something te See Full Answer
Oct 07, 2021 04:51PM · 3 likes · like

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Quotes by Ellen Kushner (?)

“Let the fairy tale begin on a winter's morning, then, with one drop of blood newly-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as a single spot of claret on the lace cuff.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

27 likes

“Not being the sort to throw a book, she pounded her fist on her cushion.”
― Ellen Kushner

tags: books, reading

24 likes

“There's the road to heaven, and there's the road to hell, and there? That's the road to Faerie.”
― Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer

19 likes

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July Epic Fantasy Book of the Month Poll

Ghost by Carole Cummings

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Melusine by Sarah Monette

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Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

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The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

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Bloodraven by P.L. Nunn

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Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

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