:Jo Walton
{{Short description|Canadian writer and poet (born 1964)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{for-multi|the British poet and writer|Jo L. Walton|others with a similar name|Joe Walton (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jo Walton
| image = Jo Walton (cropped).jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Jo Walton in 2014
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1964}}
| birth_place = Aberdare, Wales, UK
| death_date =
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| occupation = Writer
| citizenship = Canadian
| period =
| genre = Fantasy, science fiction, alternate history
| subject =
| movement =
| spouse = Emmet A. O'Brien
| partner =
| children = 1
| relatives =
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Jo Walton (born 1964) is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian-era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.
Walton is also known for her non-fiction, including book reviews and SF commentary in the magazine Tor.com. A collection of her articles were published in What Makes This Book So Great (2014), which won the Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction.
Background
Walton was born in 1964 in Aberdare, a town in the Cynon Valley of Wales.[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/02/jo-walton-among-others-interview Jo Walton's Among Others: 'It's a mythologisation of part of my life'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029030828/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/02/jo-walton-among-others-interview |date=29 October 2018 }} at the Guardian; by David Barnett; published 2 October 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2013{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTfAAAAMAAJ |page=434 |volume=169 |title=Contemporary Authors New Revision Series |publisher=Gale Cengage Publishing |isbn=9780787695330 |year=2008 |access-date=12 December 2020 |archive-date=10 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510181706/https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTfAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }} She went to Park School in Aberdare, then Aberdare Girls' Grammar School. She lived for a year in Cardiff, went to Howell's School, Llandaff and finished her education at Oswestry School in Shropshire and at the Lancaster University. She lived in London for two years and lived in Lancaster until 1997. She then moved to Swansea, where she lived until she moved to Canada in 2002.{{cite news|url=http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2007/12/26/jo-s-scientific-approach-to-writing-91466-20286225/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418020729/http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2007/12/26/jo-s-scientific-approach-to-writing-91466-20286225/|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 April 2008|title=Jo's scientific approach to writing|last=Turner|first=Robin|date=26 December 2007|work=Western Mail|access-date=29 December 2007|location=Wales}}
Walton speaks Welsh: "It's the second language of my family of origin, my grandmother was a well known Welsh scholar and translator, I studied it in school from five to sixteen, I have a ten-year-old's fluency on grammar and vocab but no problem whatsoever with pronunciation."{{Cite news |last=Walton|first=Jo |date=26 December 2007 |title=LiveJournal comment on knowledge of Welsh |url=http://truepenny.livejournal.com/55561.html?thread=254729 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326152628/http://truepenny.livejournal.com/55561.html?thread=254729 |archive-date=26 March 2012 |work=Notes from the Labyrinth: Unobtainium and Dragons' Bones |publisher=LiveJournal |access-date=14 November 2017}}
Writing career
Walton has been writing since she was 13, but her first novel was not published until 2000. Before that, she had been published in a number of role-playing game publications, such as Pyramid, mostly in collaboration with her husband at the time, Ken Walton, co-founder of the Cakebread & Walton games company.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=1835|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050116090059/http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=1835|url-status=dead|title=Jo Walton :: Pen & Paper RPG Database|archivedate=16 January 2005}} Walton was also active in online science fiction fandom, especially in the Usenet groups rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. Her poem "The Lurkers Support Me in E-Mail" is widely quoted on it and in other online arguments, often without her name attached.{{Cite web |url=http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10407 |title=IRoSF: Login Required |access-date=1 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113220222/http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10407 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}
Walton's first three novels, The King's Peace (2000), The King's Name (2001) and The Prize in the Game (2002), were all fantasy and set in the same world, which is based on Arthurian Britain and the Táin Bó Cúailnge's Ireland. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002. Her next novel, Tooth and Claw (2003), was intended as a novel Anthony Trollope could have written, but about dragons rather than humans.
Farthing was her first science fiction novel, placing the genre of the cozy mystery firmly inside an alternative history in which the United Kingdom made peace with Adolf Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II. It was nominated for a Nebula Award, a Quill Award,[http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/06/02/2007-quills-nominees/ Announcement of Quills nominees at The Beat] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120715165112/http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/06/02/2007-quills-nominees/ |date=15 July 2012 }}, 2 June 2007 the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel,[http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-finalists.htm John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015115631/http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-finalists.htm |date=15 October 2011 }}. Retrieved 4 June 2007 and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. A sequel, Ha'penny, was published in October 2007, with the final book in the trilogy, Half a Crown, published in September 2008. Ha'penny won the 2008 Prometheus Award (jointly with Harry Turtledove's novel The Gladiator){{cite web |url=http://lfs.org/releases/2008Finalists.shtml |title=Prometheus Award Finalists Announced |author= |date=March 2008 |publisher=Libertarian Futurist Society |access-date=25 April 2013 |archive-date=14 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414031201/http://www.lfs.org/releases/2008Finalists.shtml |url-status=live }} and has been nominated for the Lambda Literary Award.[http://www.lambdaliterary.org/winners-finalists/04/30/lambda-literary-awards-2007-2/ 20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731234511/http://www.lambdaliterary.org/winners-finalists/04/30/lambda-literary-awards-2007-2/ |date=31 July 2017 }} accessed 25 April 2013.
In April 2007, Howard V. Hendrix stated that professional writers should never release their writings online for free, as this made them equivalent to scabs.[http://community.livejournal.com/sfwa/10039.html Hendrix's "webscabs" post on LiveJournal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104175657/http://community.livejournal.com/sfwa/10039.html |date=4 January 2009 }}, April 2007 Walton responded to this by declaring 23 April as International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, a day in which writers who disagreed with Hendrix could release their stories online en masse. In 2008 Walton celebrated this day by posting several chapters of an unfinished sequel to Tooth and Claw, Those Who Favor Fire.
In 2008, Walton began writing an online column for Tor.com, mostly retrospective reviews of older books.[http://www.tor.com/tags/Jo%20Walton%20Reads Jo Walton Reads] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507181239/http://www.tor.com/tags/Jo%20Walton%20Reads |date=7 May 2015 }} at Tor.com A collection of these blog posts were published in What Makes This Book So Great (2014). She also wrote a series of articles revisiting the Hugo award nominees for each year from 1953 to 2000, which were later collected as An Informal History of the Hugos (2018).{{cite web |url=https://locusmag.com/2018/10/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-an-informal-history-of-the-hugos-a-personal-look-back-at-the-hugo-awards-1953-2000-by-jo-walton/ |title=Gary K. Wolfe Reviews An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton |last=Wolfe |first=Gary K. |author-link=Gary K. Wolfe |work=Locus Magazine |date=24 October 2018 |access-date=27 September 2021 |archive-date=2 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211002005156/http://locusmag.com/2018/10/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-an-informal-history-of-the-hugos-a-personal-look-back-at-the-hugo-awards-1953-2000-by-jo-walton/ |url-status=live }}
Her book, Among Others (2012), won several awards, including both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Nebula Award for Best Novel.{{cite web |url=http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/05/2011-nebula-awards-winners/ |title=2011 Nebula Award Winners |work=Locus Magazine |date=19 May 2012 |access-date=20 May 2012 |archive-date=13 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713162304/http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/05/2011-nebula-awards-winners/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/announcing-the-2012-hugo-award-winners |title=Announcing the 2012 Hugo Award Winners |work=Tor.com |date=2 September 2012 |access-date=2 September 2012 |archive-date=8 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908143752/http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/announcing-the-2012-hugo-award-winners |url-status=live }} Her recent works include the alternate history My Real Children (2014), which won the Tiptree Award; the Thessaly trilogy (2015–16), a science fiction/fantasy series involving the Greek Gods and a re-imagining of Plato's Republic;{{cite news|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jo-walton/necessity/|title=Necessity by Jo Walton|work=Kirkus Reviews|date=18 May 2016|access-date=18 November 2016|archive-date=26 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126065124/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jo-walton/necessity/|url-status=live}} and the historical fantasy Lent (2019), set in Renaissance Italy.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-review-jo-walton-lent-20190516-story.html |title=Like 'Groundhog Day' in hell, 'Lent' traces the recurring lives of a heretic monk |first=Cory |last=Doctorow |author-link=Cory Doctorow |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=16 May 2019 |access-date=27 September 2021 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927091115/https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-review-jo-walton-lent-20190516-story.html |url-status=live }} Her 2020 novel Or What You Will is a metafictional novel about immortality and creativity, featuring an ageing fantasy novelist writing a book set in Renaissance Florence.{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/21347055/or-what-you-will-review-jo-walton |title=In this joyous fantasy novel, books and art are the key to cheating death |first=Constance |last=Grady |work=Vox |date=30 July 2020 |access-date=27 September 2021 |archive-date=16 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916171216/https://www.vox.com/culture/21347055/or-what-you-will-review-jo-walton |url-status=live }}
In February 2018, Walton was the Literary/Fan Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at the 36th annual Life, the Universe, & Everything professional science fiction and fantasy arts symposium.{{cite web |title=Life, the Universe, & Everything 36: The Marion K. "Doc" Smith Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy |url=http://ltue.info/progbookpdfs/LTUE2018ProgramBook.pdf |publisher=LTUE Press |date=1 February 2018 |access-date=13 September 2021 |archive-date=13 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913074104/http://ltue.info/progbookpdfs/LTUE2018ProgramBook.pdf |url-status=live }}
In November 2022, Walton released her original audio drama Heart's Home, based on a Welsh folk tale, with Odyssey Theatre as part of The Other Path podcast.
Awards
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ {{sronly|Awards and nominations}} ! scope=col style="min-width: 15em" |Award ! scope=col style="width: 9em" | Category ! scope=col | Year ! scope=col | Work ! scope=col style="min-width: 7em" | Result{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/Jo_Walton |title=Jo Walton Awards |website=Science Fiction Awards Database |publisher=Locus Science Fiction Foundation |access-date=August 1, 2022 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923064453/https://sfadb.com/Jo_Walton |url-status=live }} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" | British Fantasy Award
| Fantasy Novel | align=center | 2012 | {{won}} |
|---|
| scope=row style="text-align: center" | British SF Award
| Nonfiction | align=center | 2021 | "Books In Which No Bad Things Happen" | {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=2 | Hugo Award
| Novel | align=center | 2012 | {{won}} |
| Related Work
| align=center | 2019 | An Informal History of the Hugos | {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=2 | James Tiptree Jr. Award
| rowspan=2 | – | align=center | 2010 | Lifelode | {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2015
| {{won}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=2 | John W. Campbell Award
| rowspan=2 | New Writer | align=center | 2001 | Jo Walton | {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2002
| Jo Walton | {{won}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" | John W. Campbell Memorial Award
| SF Novel | align=center | 2007 | Farthing | {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" | Lambda Literary Award
| align=center | 2008 | Ha'penny | {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=6 | Locus Award
| rowspan=2 | Fantasy Novel | align=center | 2012 | {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2017
| {{nom}} |
| SF Novel
| align=center | 2007 | Farthing | {{nom}} |
| Collection
| align=center | 2019 | Starlings | {{nom}} |
| rowspan=2 | Nonfiction
| align=center | 2015 | What Makes This Book So Great | {{won}} |
| align=center | 2019
| An Informal History of the Hugos | {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=5 | Mythopoeic Award
| rowspan=5 | Adult Literature | align=center | 2010 | Lifelode | {{won}} |
| align=center | 2012
| {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2017
| {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2020
| Lent | {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2022
| {{won}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=2 | Nebula Award
| rowspan=2 | Novel | align=center | 2007 | Farthing | {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2012
| {{won}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=3 | Prometheus Award
| rowspan=3 | Novel | align=center | 2008 | Ha'penny | {{won}} |
| align=center | 2009
| {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2016
| {{nom}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" | Skylark Award
| – | align=center | 2017 | Jo Walton | {{won}} |
| scope=row style="text-align: center" rowspan=3 | World Fantasy Award
| rowspan=3 | Novel | align=center | 2004 | {{won}} |
| align=center | 2012
| {{nom}} |
| align=center | 2015
| {{nom}} |
Personal life
Walton moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, after her first novel was published. She is married to Emmet A. O'Brien.{{cite journal|author-link=Dave Langford|last=Langford|first=David|url=http://news.ansible.co.uk/a169.html|journal=Ansible|title=Infinitely Improbable|issue=169|date=August 2001|access-date=14 August 2007|archive-date=21 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140721065443/http://news.ansible.co.uk/a169.html|url-status=live}} She has one child.
Bibliography
= Novels =
- Tooth and Claw (November 2003, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-7653-0264-0}})
- Lifelode (February 2009, NESFA Press,Printed, according to the Salt Lake County library catalog, http://www.slcolibrary.org/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004152321/http://slcolibrary.org/ |date=4 October 2016 }}, "in a limited hardcover edition of 800 copies" {{ISBN|1-886778-82-5}})
- Among Others (January 2011, Tor Books {{ISBN|978-0-7653-2153-4}})
- My Real Children (May 2014, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765332653}})
- Lent (May 2019, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765379061}})
- Or What You Will (July 2020, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9781250308993}})
- Everybody's Perfect (forthcoming)[https://maassagency.com/march-subsidiary-deals/ March Subsidiary Deals]
== ''Sulien'' series ==
- The King's Peace (2000, Tor Books)
- The King's Name (December 2001, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-312-87653-X}})
- The Prize in the Game (December 2002, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-7653-0263-2}})
== ''Small Change'' trilogy ==
- Farthing (August 2006, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-7653-1421-5}})
- Ha'penny (October 2007, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-7653-1853-9}})
- Half a Crown (August 2008, Tor Books, {{ISBN|978-0-7653-1621-9}})
- "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" (short story) (July 2010, Tor Books) (included in Starlings)
== ''Thessaly'' trilogy ==
- The Just City (January 2015, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765332660}})
- The Philosopher Kings (June 2015, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765332677}})
- Necessity (July 2016, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765379023}})
- Thessaly, the Complete Trilogy (September 2017, Tor Books, {{ISBN|9780765399007}})
= Other works =
- GURPS Celtic Myth (with Ken Walton; 1995, roleplaying supplement)
- The End of the World in Duxford (1997), a poem inspired by Larry Niven's short story "Inconstant Moon"{{cite web|url=//www.bluejo.demon.co.uk/poetry/interstichia/notedux.htm |title=Note on The End of the World in Duxford |date=28 March 2003 |access-date=26 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030328210327/http://www.bluejo.demon.co.uk/poetry/interstichia/notedux.htm |archive-date=28 March 2003 }}
- Muses and Lurkers (2001, poetry chapbook, edited by Eleanor Evans)
- Realms of Sorcery (with Ken Walton) (2001, roleplaying supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play)
- Sybils and Spaceships, poetry chapbook (2009, NESFA Press)
- What Makes This Book So Great, collected essays and book reviews (2014, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0765331934}})
- Starlings, short story and poetry collection (2018, Tachyon Publications)
- An Informal History of the Hugos, collected essays and book reviews (2018, Tor Books)
= Short stories =
- "Sleeper" (2014, Tor.com) (included in "Starlings")
- [https://www.tor.com/2009/02/06/escape-to-other-worlds-with-science-fiction/ "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction"] (2009, Tor.com) (included in "Starlings")
- "The Jump Rope Rhyme" (2017, Tor.com)
- "A Burden Shared" (2017, Tor.com) (included in "Starlings")
Critical studies, reviews and biography
- "Story behind Ha'Penny by Jo Walton" (2013), from Story Behind the Book: Volume 1[http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/story-behind-the-book-volume-1-essays-on-writing-speculative-fiction-out-now Story Behind the Book : Volume 1 – Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912085353/http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/story-behind-the-book-volume-1-essays-on-writing-speculative-fiction-out-now |date=12 September 2015}}
References
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Jo Walton}}
- {{Official website|http://jowaltonbooks.com}}
- [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091224102452/http://papersky.livejournal.com/ Jo Walton's LiveJournal] (deleted 10 April 2017; see Walton's note at [http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/i-would-have-stayed-on-livejournal-forever/])
- [https://www.tor.com/members/bluejo/ Jo Walton's page at Tor.com], with links to her reviews
- [http://michaelcross.me.uk/jowalton/ Searchable Index of Jo Walton's Tor.com posts]
- {{ISFDB name|6719}}
{{Jo Walton}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novel}}
{{World Fantasy Award Best Novel}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Jo}}
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:20th-century Welsh women writers
Category:21st-century Welsh novelists
Category:21st-century Welsh women writers
Category:Alumni of Lancaster University
Category:Anglo-Welsh novelists
Category:British alternative history writers
Category:British science fiction writers
Category:British women bloggers
Category:Canadian alternative history writers
Category:Canadian fantasy writers
Category:Canadian science fiction writers
Category:Canadian women bloggers
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:Hugo Award–winning writers
Category:John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winners
Category:People educated at Howell's School, Llandaff
Category:People educated at Oswestry School
Category:Welsh emigrants to Canada
Category:Welsh fantasy writers
Category:Welsh science fiction writers
Category:Welsh women novelists
Category:British women historical novelists
Category:Canadian women science fiction and fantasy writers