Kelly Link

{{Infobox writer

| name = Kelly Link

| image = Gavin Grant and Kelly Link.jpg

| caption = Kelly Link and Gavin Grant

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|7|19}}

| birth_place = Miami, Florida, U.S.{{cite web |url=http://kellylink.net/pretty-monsters-bio |title=About Kelly |publisher=Kelly Link |access-date=May 1, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315010831/http://kellylink.net/pretty-monsters-bio |archive-date=March 15, 2013}}

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Writer

| education = Columbia University (BA)
University of North Carolina, Greensboro (MFA)

| genre = Fantasy, horror, magical realism

| spouse = Gavin Grant

| children = 1{{cite news |last=Grant |first=Gavin |url=http://smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journal/2009/05/20/small-beer-little-baby/ |title=Small Beer, little baby |work=Small Beer Press |date=May 20, 2009 |access-date=August 12, 2011}}

}}

Kelly Link (born July 19, 1969) is an American editor and writer. Mainly known as an author of short stories, she published her first novel, The Book of Love in 2024.{{cite web |first=Laura |last=Miller |url=http://archive.salon.com/audio/col/mill/2001/11/19/kelly_link/index.html |title=An interview with Kelly Link |work=Salon |date=November 19, 2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307164703/http://archive.salon.com/audio/col/mill/2001/11/19/kelly_link/index.html |archive-date=March 7, 2008}}

{{cite web |first=Laura |last=Miller |title="Get in Trouble": Going back inside the weird and wonderful world of Kelly Link |url=https://www.salon.com/abtest3/2015/02/04/get_in_trouble_going_back_inside_the_weird_and_wonderful_world_of_kelly_link/ |website=Salon |language=en |date=February 4, 2015}} While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many of her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and literary fiction. Among other honors, she has won a Hugo Award, three Nebula Awards, and a World Fantasy Award for her fiction, and she was one of the recipients of the 2018 MacArthur "Genius" Grant.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/short-story-writer-kelly-link-wins-macarthur-genius-grant/2018/10/04/75b53be8-c768-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html |title=Short-story writer Kelly Link wins MacArthur 'genius' grant |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 4, 2018 |access-date=October 4, 2018 |author=Charles, Ron}}

Biography

Link is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and the MFA program of UNC Greensboro. In 1995, she attended the Clarion East Writing Workshop.

Link and husband Gavin Grant manage Small Beer Press, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. The couple's imprint of Small Beer Press for intermediate readers is called Big Mouth House. They also co-edited St. Martin's Press's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology series with Ellen Datlow for five years, ending in 2008. (The couple inherited the "fantasy" side from Terri Windling in 2004.) In 2019, Link and Grant opened Book Moon, a new and used bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts.{{cite web |title=Book Moon |url=https://www.bookmoonbooks.com/ |website=Book Moon |access-date=February 29, 2024}} Link also co-edits the literary magazine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet,About Kelly. (January 7, 2020). Retrieved July 31, 2020, from https://kellylink.net/about-kelly and was the slush reader for Sci Fiction, edited by Datlow.

Link taught at Lenoir–Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, with the Visiting Writers Series for spring semester 2006. She has taught or visited at a number of schools and workshops including:

Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York;
Brookdale Community College of Lincroft, New Jersey;
the Imagination Workshop at Cleveland State University;
New England Institute of Art & Communications, Brookline, Massachusetts;
Clarion East at Michigan State University, Lansing;
Clarion West in Seattle, Washington; and
Smith College, near her home in Northampton.

She has participated in the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers.

Awards

class="wikitable" \|+ Awards for Kelly Link
Work	Year & Award	Category	Result	Ref.
rowspan="2" \|Travels with the Snow Queen \|1997 Otherwise Award \| \|{{Won}} \|
1999 World Fantasy Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Specialist's Hat \|1999 World Fantasy Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Shoe and Marriage \|2001 World Fantasy Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="4" \|Stranger Things Happen \|2001 Salon.com Book Award \|Fiction \|{{Won}} \| https://www.librarything.com/award/228/Salon-Book-Award
2002 World Fantasy Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
2002 SF Site Readers Poll \|SF/Fantasy Book \|{{Nominated\|5th Place}} \| https://www.sfadb.com/SF_Site_Readers_Poll_2002
2002 Locus Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards
rowspan="1" \|Louise's Ghost \|2002 Nebula Award \|Novelette \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Lull \|2003 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="4" \|Small Beer Press (with Gavin Grant) \|2003 World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional award \| \|{{Nominated}} \|
2004 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award \| \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award \| \|{{Nominated}} \|
2023 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award \| \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House (with Gavin Grant) \|2009 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award \| \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="3" \|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (17th Annual Collection) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant) \|2004 Bram Stoker Award \|Anthology \|{{Won}} \|
2005 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 British Fantasy Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="6" \|The Faery Handbag \|2004 BSFA Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Won}} \|
2005 World Fantasy Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 Hugo Award \|Novelette \|{{Won}} \|
2006 Nebula Award \|Novelette \|{{Won}} \|
2012 Premio Ignotus \|Foreign Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Catskin \|2004 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|The Hortlak \|2004 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
2004 World Fantasy Award \|Novella \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Trampoline \|2004 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
2004 World Fantasy Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Stone Animals \|2005 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 Theodore Sturgeon Award \|Short Science Fiction \|{{CFinalist}} \| https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?41+2005
rowspan="9" \|Magic for Beginners \|2005 BSFA Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Won}} \|
2006 Young Lions Fiction Award \| \|{{CFinalist}} \|
2006 Locus Award \|Novella \|{{Won}} \|
2006 SF Site Readers Poll \|SF/Fantasy Book \|{{Nominated\|5th Place}} \| https://www.sfadb.com/SF_Site_Readers_Poll_2006
2006 World Fantasy Award \|Novella \|{{Nominated}} \|
2006 Hugo Award \|Novella \|{{Nominated}} \|
2006 Nebula Award \|Novella \|{{Won}} \|
2006 Theodore Sturgeon Award \|Short Science Fiction \|{{Nominated\|3rd Place}} \| https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?41+2006
2008 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire \|Foreign Short story/Collection of Foreign Short Stories \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?25+2008
rowspan="5" \|Magic for Beginners (Collection) \|2005 International Horror Guild Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \| https://horroraward.org/prevrec.html
2005 Bram Stoker Award \|Fiction Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
2005 Salon Book Award \| \|{{Won}} \| https://www.librarything.com/award/228/Salon-Book-Award
2006 Locus Award \|Collection \|{{Won}} \|
2006 World Fantasy Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Some Zombie Contingency Plans \|2005 Bram Stoker Award \|Long Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
2006 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Monster \|2006 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Great Divorce \|2006 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (18th Annual Collection) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant) \|2006 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="2" \|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (19th Annual Collection) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant) \|2007 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
2007 British Fantasy Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (with Gavin Grant) \|2007 Hugo Award \|Semiprozine \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Light \|2008 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet \|2008 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Constable of Abal \|2008 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (20th Annual Collection) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant) \|2008 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Pretty Monsters \|2009 Locus Award \|Novella \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Pretty Monsters (Collection) \|2009 Locus Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
2009 World Fantasy Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Surfer \|2009 Locus Award \|Novella \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (21st Annual Collection) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant) \|2009 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
2009 World Fantasy Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Secret Identity \|2010 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Cinderella Game \|2010 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="3" \|The Summer People \|2011 Shirley Jackson Award \|Novelette \|{{Won}} \|
2012 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
2013 O. Henry Award \| \|Juror Favorite \|
rowspan="1" \|Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (with Gavin Grant) \|2012 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Valley of the Girls \|2012 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Two Houses \|2013 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
2013 Shirley Jackson Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.sfadb.com/Shirley_Jackson_Awards_2013
rowspan="2" \|I Can See Right Through You \|2015 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
2015 World Fantasy Award \|Short Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Monstrous Affections (with Gavin Grant) \|2015 Locus Award \|Anthology \|{{Nominated}} \|
2015 World Fantasy Award \|Anthology \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Lady and the Fox \|2015 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The New Boyfriend \|2015 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="5" \|Get in Trouble \|2016 Shirley Jackson Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.sfadb.com/Shirley_Jackson_Awards_2016
2016 World Fantasy Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction \| \|{{CFinalist}} \|
2016 Locus Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?28+2016
2016 Indies Choice Book Awards \|Adult Fiction \|Honor \|
rowspan="2" \|The Game of Smash and Recovery \|2016 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
2016 Theodore Sturgeon Award \|Short Science Fiction \|{{Won}} \|
rowspan="1" \| \|2017 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award \|Contributions to the Genre \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear \|2020 Locus Award \|Short Story \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="1" \|Skinder's Veil \|2022 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="4" \|White Cat, Black Dog \|2023 Kirkus Prize \|Fiction \|{{Nominated}} \|
2024 World Fantasy Award \|Collection \|{{Nominated}} \|
2024 Locus Award \|Collection \|{{Won}} \|
2024 Chautauqua Prize \| \|{{Sho}} \|
rowspan="2" \|Prince Hat Underground \|2024 World Fantasy Award \|Novella \|{{Nominated}} \|
2024 Locus Award \|Novelette \|{{Nominated}} \|
rowspan="2" \|The Book of Love \|2025 Compton Crook Award \| \|{{Nominated}} \| https://www.librarything.com/award/1412.2.0.2025/Compton-Crook-Award-Nominee-2025
2025 Nebula Award \|Novel \|{{Nominated}} \|

class="wikitable"

|+ Awards for Kelly Link

Work

Year & Award

Bibliography

=Books=

Stranger Things Happen: 2001 Salon Book of the Year, The Village Voice favorite (available here [https://web.archive.org/web/20070220010942/http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/sth/] as a free download, under a Creative Commons license)
Magic for Beginners: 2006 Locus Award for Best Short Story Collection
Pretty Monsters: 2008 World Fantasy{{cite web |author=World Fantasy Convention |year=2010 |title=Award Winners and Nominees |url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/awardslist.html/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201074405/http://worldfantasy.org/awards/awardslist.html |archive-date=December 1, 2010 |access-date=February 4, 2011}} and Locus Award finalist.
Get in Trouble: 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist.
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories (Random House, 2023)
The Book of Love: 2024{{Cite web |last=Garrett |first=Yvonne C. |date=2024-07-29 |title=Kelly Link's The Book of Love {{!}} The Brooklyn Rail |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2024/03/books/Kelly-Links-The-Book-of-Love/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=brooklynrail.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Gould |first=Emily |date=2024-02-22 |title=How Kelly Link Wrote a Very Good First Novel |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/interview-kelly-link-book-of-love.html |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Cut |language=en}}{{cite web |last=Iglesias |first=Gabino |date=2024-02-15 |title=Kelly Link's debut novel 'The Book of Love' is magical, confusing, heartfelt, strange |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/02/15/1231331761/kelly-link-debut-novel-the-book-of-love-review |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=NPR}}{{cite web |last=El-Mohtar |first=Amal |date=2024-02-12 |title=Book Review: 'The Book of Love,' by Kelly Link |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/books/review/kelly-link-the-book-of-love.html |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The New York Times}}

=Selected stories (award winners)=

"The Game of Smash and Recovery": 2016 Theodore Sturgeon Award
"The Summer People": 2011 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette, 2013 The O. Henry Prize Stories
"Pretty Monsters": 2009 Locus Award for Best Novella
"Magic for Beginners": 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novella
"The Faery Handbag": 2005 Hugo and Nebula Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award winner
"Stone Animals": 2005 The Best American Short Stories
"Louise's Ghost": 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novelette
"The Specialist's Hat": 1999 World Fantasy Award
"Travels with the Snow Queen": 1997 James Tiptree, Jr. Award

As author

4 Stories (chapbook), Small Beer Press, 2000
Stranger Things Happen, Small Beer Press, 2001
Magic for Beginners, Small Beer Press, 2005 (reprinted by Harcourt, 2005)
Catskin: a swaddled zine, Jelly Ink Press, date unknown
Pretty Monsters: Stories, Viking Juvenile, 2008
The Wrong Grave, 2009
Get in Trouble: Stories, Random House, 2015
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories, Random House, 2023{{Cite web |title=White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/704687/white-cat-black-dog-by-kelly-link/ |access-date=February 21, 2023 |website=Penguin Random House |language=en-US}}
The Book of Love, Random House, 2024{{Cite web |title=The Book of Love by Kelly Link |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239722/the-book-of-love-by-kelly-link/ |access-date=October 11, 2023 |website=Penguin Random House |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=El-Mohtar |first=Amal |date=2024-02-12 |title=Kelly Link Returns with a Dreamlike, Profoundly Beautiful Novel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/books/review/kelly-link-the-book-of-love.html |access-date=2024-03-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Link |first=Kelly |date=2024-02-16 |title=Novelist Kelly Link: 'I was drawn to the monsters and half-naked women on fantasy covers' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/16/novelist-kelly-link-i-was-drawn-to-the-monsters-and-half-naked-women-on-fantasy-covers |access-date=2024-03-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=Kelly Link's debut novel 'The Book of Love' is magical, confusing, heartfelt, strange |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/02/15/1231331761/kelly-link-debut-novel-the-book-of-love-review |website=NPR|date=February 15, 2024 |last1=Iglesias |first1=Gabino }}

As editor

Trampoline Small Beer Press, 2003
The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Volumes 17 - 21 (from 2004-2008) (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant)
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (2011) (with Gavin J. Grant)
Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (2014) (with Gavin J. Grant)

In addition, Link and Grant have edited a semiannual small press fantasy magazine: Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (or LCRW) since 1997. An anthology, The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, was published by Del Rey Books in 2007.

References

External links

[http://www.kellylink.net/ Official website]
[http://www.lcrw.net/lcrw/ Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet]
{{isfdb name|id=Kelly_Link|name=Kelly Link}}
Kelly Link's [http://www.sfadb.com/Kelly_Link awards and nominations] at the Science Fiction Awards Database
[https://web.archive.org/web/20051125045740/http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/va-link/ Essay] on Link's story "Lull" at Fantastic Metropolis
[http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=bw&air_date=1/5/06&tmplt_type=Show RealAudio Interview] from KCRW's Bookworm show
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070404000859/http://www.apublicspace.org/issue1/link.shtml An excerpt from Origin Story] from the magazine A Public Space
[http://mainehumanities.org/podcasts/stonecoast.html Reading by Kelly from the Stonecoast MFA program's Winter 2008 residency] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924151840/https://mainehumanities.org/podcasts/stonecoast.html |date=September 24, 2018 }}