Ellen Kushner (born October 6, 1955) is an American writer of

fantasy novels Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. magic (paranormal), Magic, the supernatural and Legendary creature, magical creatures are common i ...

. From 1996 until 2010, she was the host of the radio program '' Sound & Spirit'', produced by WGBH in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and distributed by

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programmi ...

Background and personal life

Kushner was born in a Jewish family in Washington, D.C. and grew up in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, Ohio. She attended

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

and graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. She lives in New York City with her wife and sometime collaborator,

Delia Sherman Cordelia Caroline Sherman (born 1951, Tokyo, Japan), known professionally as Delia Sherman, is an American fantasy writer and editor. Her novel ''The Porcelain Dove'' won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Background Sherman attended The Chapin Sch ...

. They held a wedding in 1996 and were legally married in Boston in 2004. Kushner is bisexual.

Career

Kushner's first books were five ''

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

s. During that period, she published her

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, '' Swordspoint'', in 1987. A sequel set 18 years after ''Swordspoint'', called ''The Privilege of the Sword'', was published in July 2006, with a first hardcover edition published in late August 2006 by Small Beer Press. ''The Fall of the Kings'' (2002) (co-authored by Sherman) is set 40 years after ''Swordspoint.'' All three books are considered mannerpunk novels, and take place in a nameless imaginary capital city and its raffish district of Riverside, where swordsmen-for-hire ply their trade. From 2011 to 2014

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

versions of all three novels were produced under the label of

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

Presents. The ''Swordspoint'' adaptation won the 2013 Audie Award for Best Audio Drama, an Earphones Award from '' AudioFile'', and the 2013 Communicator Award: Gold Award of Excellence (Audio). The adaptation of ''The Fall of the Kings'' won the 2014 Wilbur Award. Kushner's second novel, ''Thomas the Rhymer'', won the

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 ...

and the Mythopoeic Award in 1991. She has also published short stories and poetry in various anthologies, including The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and the ''Borderland'' series of

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban area, urban-affected setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual charac ...

anthologies for teenage readers. In 1987, Kushner relocated from New York to Boston, and began working as a presenter in radio. She worked with public radio station WBGH-FM, first hosting its all-night radio program "Night Air". In 1989 she hosted the ''Nakamichi International Music Series'' for American Public Radio (now

), and later produced three Jewish holiday specials with APR, ''Festival of Liberation: the Passover Story in World Music'', ''The Door is Open: a Jewish High Holiday Meditation'', and ''Beyond 1492''. Beginning in 1996, Kushner wrote, programmed and hosted the series "Sound & Spirit", produced by WGBH/PRI. "Sound & Spirit" was an hour-long weekly series "exploring the human spirit through music and ideas." Episodes featured folk, classical, and world music, with a wide variety of special guests including

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

drummer

Mickey Hart Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman, September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until February 19 ...

, religious historian Elaine Pagels, and writer

. "Sound & Spirit" remained on the air until 2010. In 2002, she released a CD of her story ''The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer Nutcracker,'' which uses music from

Pyotr Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

's ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' to tell a

Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...

story. The music on the CD is performed by Shirim Klezmer Orchestra. ''The Golden Dreydl'' won a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television. A live theater version of ''The Golden Dreydl'' was performed in 2008 and 2009 at Vital Theater in New York City, written by Kushner (who played "Tante Miriam" in the 2008 production) and directed by Linda Ames Key. In 2007, Kushner, along with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom, scripted the musical audio drama ''The Witches of Lublin'' for public radio. Based on the history of Jewish women who were klezmer musicians in 18th Century Europe, ''The Witches of Lublin'' premiered on radio stations nationwide in April 2011 with performances by Tovah Feldshuh and Simon Jones. It won the 2012 Wilbur Award for Best Single Program, Radio; the 2012 Grace Allen Award for Best Director, and the 2012 Gabriel Award: Arts, Local Release, Radio. In 2011 she co-edited (with

Holly Black Holly Black (; born November 10, 1971) is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the ''New York Times'' bestselling young adult ''Folk of the Air'' series. She is also well kn ...

) ''Welcome to Bordertown,'' an anthology of new stories from Terri Windling's seminal shared-world series. In an audiobook adaptation

read his own work, set to an original score by Boiled in Lead's Drew Miller. In 2015, Kushner created ''Tremontaine'', a serialized prequel to ''Swordspoint'', for the Serial Box platform. The series ran for four seasons. With Sherman and others, she is actively involved in the interstitial art movement. She is the co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation. She is also a member of the Endicott Studio and has taught classes and seminars as part of Hollins University's MFA program; the Odyssey Writing Workshop; and the Clarion Writers' Workshop.

Awards

Major awards

Locus awards (poll)

Published works

Riverside

* '' Swordspoint'' (1987) – * '' The Fall of the Kings'' (with Delia Sherman) (2002) – * '' The Privilege of the Sword'' (2006) –

Standalone novels

* ''

Thomas the Rhymer Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (fl. c. 1220 – 1298), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called "Erceldoune") in the Borders. Tho ...

'' (1990) – * ''St. Nicholas and the Valley Beyond: A Christmas Legend'' (1994) –

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...
books

* 47. '' Outlaws of Sherwood Forest'' (August, 1985) – * 56. '' The Enchanted Kingdom'' (May, 1986) – * 58. '' Statue of Liberty Adventure'' (July, 1986) – * 63. '' Mystery of the Secret Room'' (December, 1986) – * 86. ''

Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table (, , ) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace ...

'' (December, 1988) –

Chapbook form

* ''The Golden Dreydl'' (2007) – ** ''The Golden Dreidel'' (2021) – * ''The Man with the Knives'' (2010), with Thomas Canty –

Short fiction

Anthologies edited

* ''Basilisk'' (1980) – * '' The Horns of Elfland'', with

and Donald G. Keller (1997) – * '' Welcome to Bordertown (New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands)'', with

(2011) –

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kushner, Ellen 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American radio personalities American women novelists Barnard College alumni Bryn Mawr College alumni Choose Your Own Adventure writers Living people Writers from New York City American women science fiction and fantasy writers World Fantasy Award–winning writers Writers from Washington, D.C. American LGBTQ novelists 1955 births 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from Cleveland Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Ohio LGBTQ people from Ohio LGBTQ people from Washington, D.C. Jewish American novelists Jewish women writers American speculative fiction editors American women editors American bisexual writers