Misha (writer)

{{Infobox person

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1955|04|}}

| birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

}}

| occupation = Science fiction writer

| notable_works = Red Spider White Web (1990)

}}

Misha Nogha Chocholak (born April 1955) is an American science fiction writer. Of Métis background, she is known for her 1990 cyberpunk novel Red Spider White Web.

Biography

Misha Nogha Chocholak, of Cree-Métis and Norwegian ancestry, was born in April 1955 in Saint Paul, Minnesota and studied at Eastern Washington University, Portland State University, and Eastern Oregon University.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Misha |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/misha |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |access-date=2023-08-29}}{{Cite book |title=Reckonings: Contemporary Short Fiction by Native American Women |year=2008 |editor-last=Sweet Wong |editor-first=Hertha D. |pages=300 |editor-last2=Muller |editor-first2=Lauren Stuart |editor-last3=Sequoya Magdaleno |editor-first3=Jana}} In 1986, she published the short story "The Wishing Well" in the May issue of New Pathways.{{Cite magazine |last=Chocholak |first=Misha |date=1986 |title=The Wishing Well |magazine=New Pathways Into Science Fiction and Fantasy |volume=1 |issue=2}} In 1989, she published Prayers of Steel, a story collection with poetry.

In 1990, Misha published Red Spider White Web, a cyberpunk/romantic novel about a Native American artist turned human–wolverine hybrid struggling in a Japan-dominated United States damaged by the climate crisis. Stina Attebery described Misha "as an important figure for both Indigenous futurisms and Indigenous cyberpunk", citing the novel's "ecological and feminist themes" in contrast to the masculinity of first-wave cyberpunk. She won the 1991 Readercon novel award for Red Spider, White Web.{{Cite web |title=Readercon Awards Winners By Year |url=https://www.sfadb.com/Readercon_Awards_Winners_By_Year |access-date=2023-08-29 |website=Science Fiction Awards Database |publisher=Locus}} She was also shortlisted for the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award for the book, but lost to Colin Greenland's Take Back Plenty.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/Arthur_C_Clarke_Award_1991 |title=Arthur C. Clarke Award 1991 |work=Science Fiction Awards Database |publisher=Locus |access-date=2023-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929012347/http://www.sfadb.com/Arthur_C_Clarke_Award_1991 |archive-date=2015-09-29 |url-status=live}}

Misha was an editor at science fiction magazine New Pathways; John Clute later described her as "influential". In 1993, she published Ke-Qua-Hawk-As, another story collection with poetry, and Dr. Ihoka's Cure, a non-fiction title. She is also a musician.{{Cite book |last=Attebery |first=Stina |date=2022 |chapter=Misha [Nogha/Chocholak] (1955–) |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003091189-24/misha-nogha-chocholak-1955%E2%80%93-stina-attebery |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003091189/fifty-key-figures-cyberpunk-culture-anna-mcfarlane-graham-murphy-lars-schmeink |via=Taylor & Francis |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781003091189 |title=Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture }}

In 2007, Misha published another poetry book Magpies & Tigers.{{Cite web |title=Nogha_magpies&tigers |url=https://www.wordcraftoforegon.com/nogha_magpiestigers.html |access-date=2023-08-29 |website=Wordcraft of Oregon |language=en}} She also began working on another novel, Yellowjacket.{{Cite book |title=The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction |year=2010 |editor-last=Evans |editor-first=Arthur B. |pages=630 |language=en |chapter=Misha Nogha, "Chippoke Na Gomi"}}

As of 2008, Misha and her husband, composer Michael Chocholak, lived in Cove, Oregon.

Works

Prayers of Steel (1989)
Red Spider White Web (1990){{r|aa}}
Dr. Ihoka's Cure (1993)Review of Dr. Ihoka's Cure: {{citation | last = Denning | first = Mary | date = Spring 1994 | issue = 13 | journal = Science Fiction Eye | pages = 93 | title = none }}
Ke-Qua-Hawk-As (1993)
Magpies & Tigers (2007)

References

{{reflist|refs=

Reviews of Red Spider White Web:

{{citation | last = Bristow | first = Michael | date = Spring 1991| issue = 51 | journal = Foundation| pages = 103 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = de Lint | first = Charles | date = Autumn 1990| issue = 3 | journal = Science Fiction Review| pages = 79 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = McAuley | first = Paul J. | date = November 1990| issue = 41 | journal = Interzone| pages = 64 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = Memmott | first = Dave | date = Winter 1991| issue = 8 | journal = Science Fiction Eye| pages = 98 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = Miller | first = Faren | date = August 1990| issue = 355 | journal = Locus| pages = 50 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = Wallace | first = Jon | date = 1990| issue = 157 | journal = Vector| pages = 27 | title = none }}
{{citation | last = Young | first = Bruce | date = 2001| issue = 10 | journal = Cyber-Psychos AOD| pages = 102 | title = none }}

}}

Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women novelists

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American poets

Category:21st-century American poets

Category:American women poets

Category:Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota

Category:People from Cove, Oregon