Cordelia Caroline Sherman (born 1951,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Japan), known professionally as Delia Sherman, is an American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

writer and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

. Her novel ''The Porcelain Dove'' won the

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. Established by the Mythopoeic Society in 1971, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awar ...

Background

Sherman attended The

Chapin School Chapin School is an all-girls independent day school in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan. History Maria Bowen Chapin opened "Miss Chapin's School for Girls and Kindergarten for Boys and Girls" in 1901. The school origi ...

in New York. She received her B.A. at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

in 1972, her Masters of Arts from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1975, and her Ph.D from

in 1981. She has worked as a lecturer at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

from 1978–87 and again from 1989-92; and a reviewer with the Women's Review of Books, the

New York Review of Science Fiction ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' is a monthly literary magazine of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative ...

, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Review Annual between 1988-89. From 1996-2004 she was a consulting editor at

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scienc ...

and since 1993 she has been a full-time writer, lecturer and teacher. She has taught at Hollins College Children's Literature Program; and instructed at the

Clarion Science Fiction Writer's Workshop Clarion is a six-week workshop for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Damon Knight's and Kate Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, United States, it was founded i ...

, the WisCon Writing Workshop, the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop and the Alpha Teen Writing Workshop. She was a guest author at the Virginia Highlands Festival Creative Writing Days in 2001.

Novels

Her three novels for adults are all from the subgenre

Fantasy of Manners The fantasy of manners is a literary genre, subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners (though it is not necessarily humorous). Such works generally take place in an urban setting and within the confines ...

: * ''Through a Brazen Mirror'' (1988) * ''The Porcelain Dove'' (1993) * ''The Fall of the Kings'' (2002) (with Ellen Kushner) ''Changeling'' (2006) and its sequel ''The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen'' (2009) were fantasy adventures written for younger readers. They are set in "New York Between," a world she has explored in various short stories. ''The Freedom Maze'' (2011), set in Louisiana in 1960 and 1860, is a young adult fantasy novel that uses the device of time-travel to explore the themes of slavery, courage, womanhood, and family ties. The novel won the 2012

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...

and the

Andre Norton Award The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (formerly the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy) is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to the ...

. Her novel ''The Evil Wizard Smallbone'' (2016) was nominated for the Andre Norton Award.

Other work

Sherman is co-editor (with Ellen Kushner and Donald G. Keller) of the fantasy

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically cate ...

''The Horns of Elfland'', and (with

Terri Windling Terri Windling (born December 3, 1958 in Fort Dix, New Jersey) is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram ...

) of '' ''The Essential Bordertown''. With Kushner and others, she is actively involved in the

Interstitial art Interstitial art is any work of art whose basic nature falls between, rather than within, the familiar boundaries of accepted genres or media, thus making the work difficult to categorize or describe within a single artistic discipline. The conce ...

movement. She was a founding member of (and the first president of) the Interstitial Arts Foundation. She is also a member of the Endicott Studio. Together with Kushner, she was an instructor at the

Clarion Workshop Clarion is a six-week workshop for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Damon Knight's and Kate Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, United States, it was founded i ...

2007 in San Diego.

Personal life

She lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with her wife and sometime collaborator, Ellen Kushner. They were married in 1996.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Through a Brazen Mirror'' (Ace, 1988; Circlet Press, 1989) * ''The Porcelain Dove'' (Dutton, 1993; Plume, 1994) * ''The Fall of the Kings'' (Bantam Books, 2002) (with Ellen Kushner) * ''Changeling'' (Viking/Penguin, 2006) * ''The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen'' (Viking/Penguin, 2009) * ''The Freedom Maze'' (Big Mouth House, 2011; Candlewick Press, 2014; Editions Hélium, 2014; Constable & Robinson, 2015) – won the

for libertarian science fiction and the Andre Norton Award * ''The Evil Wizard Smallbone'' (Candlewick Press, 2016) - nominated for Andre Norton Award

Collections

* ''Young Woman in a Garden and Other Stories'' (Small Beer Press, 2015)

Edited

* ''

The Horns of Elfland ''The Horns of Elfland'' is a 1997 fantasy anthology edited by Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman and Donald G. Keller. Background ''The Horns of Elfland'' was first published in April 1997 by Roc Books in paperback format. It was a nominee in the 199 ...

'' (Roc, 1997) (with Ellen Kushner and Don Keller) * * ''Interfictions'' (IAF Press, 2007) (with

Theodora Goss Theodora Goss (born September 30, 1968) is a Hungarian-American fiction writer and poet. Her writing has been nominated for major awards, including the Nebula, Locus, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. Her short fiction and poetry ...

) * * ''Interfictions Zero'' (interstitialarts.org, 2010–12) (with Helen Pilinovsky) * ''Interfictions Online: A Magazine of Interstitial Art'' (Executive Editor, 2013-)

Awards and nominations

* Nominee,

, 2017 *

, 2012 *

, 2012 * Nominee,

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

, 1999, 2001, 2006 *

Mythopoeic Awards The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. Established by the Mythopoeic Society in 1971, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awar ...

for Fantasy Fiction, 1994, 2012 * Finalist, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1989

References

External links

* – with bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Delia 1951 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American LGBT novelists American lesbian writers American libertarians American women novelists Chapin School (Manhattan) alumni Writers from Tokyo Writers from Boston Vassar College alumni Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Massachusetts Brown University alumni 21st-century LGBT people