About Mary

Kowal1Hugo-award winning author, Mary Robinette Kowal is a novelist and professional puppeteer. Her debut novel Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor 2010) was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel. In 2008 she won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, while three of her short fiction works have been nominated for the Hugo Award: “Evil Robot Monkey” in 2009 and “For Want of a Nail” in 2011, which won the Hugo for short story that year. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and several Year’s Best anthologies, as well as in her collection Scenting the Dark and Other Stories from Subterranean Press.

Kowal is also an award-winning puppeteer. With over twenty years of experience, she has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve.

When she isn’t writing or puppeteering, Kowal brings her speech and theater background to her work as a voice actor. As the voice behind several audio books and short stories, she has recorded fiction for authors such as Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.

Mary lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Sometimes she even writes on them.

Recent Journal Entries

Writing Excuses 8.20: The Short Story, with Mary Robinette Kowal

The number one request we got when we asked you what you’d like us to talk about? Short story writing. Mary is our resident expert, and if she weren’t already a member of the cast, she’d our go-to expert for an interview. Convenient! We begin by addressing the popular notion that writing short stories is [...]

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The thing I can’t believe about Game of Thrones

So my husband and I have finally started watching the HBO series Game of Thrones. Everyone has their own point at which the willing suspension of disbelief breaks. You have to be willing to accept certain things to enjoy a fantasy. Giant icewall, sure. Dire wolves? No problem. Dragons? I’m good with that. But will someone please [...]

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Regency ladies in a Pirates of the Caribbean show down

This is one of my favorite photos from my recent book tour. The members of the Oregon Regency Society came out to hear me read at the Beaverton Powell’s. They came in full dress, which was loooovely.  Afterwards, a group of us went over to the nearby McMennamins and then this happened.

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Reminder: I’m reading at The Book Cellar in Chicago with Stacey Kade. Tonight!

I’m reading with Stacey Kade at the Book Cellar tonight at 7pm.  I’ll be reading from Without a Summer and Stacey will be reading from The Rules, her new YA science-fiction novel. Come out! The Book Cellar has wine… As a former award-winning corporate copywriter, Stacey Kade has written about everything from backhoe loaders to breast pumps. But [...]

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