Samantha Henderson is an American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

writer and poet.

Personal life

Samantha Henderson lives in

Covina Covina (Help:IPA/English, /koviːnə/) is a city in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles The population was 51,268 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

with her family, and works as a church secretary.

Writing career

Henderson is a member of the

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whi ...

and has published numerous short stories, including "Bottles" (first published in

Realms of Fantasy ''Realms of Fantasy'' was a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Sovereign Media, then Tir Na Nog Press, and Damnation Books, which specialized in fantasy fiction (including some horror), related nonfiction (wi ...

) which was made into a short film in 2010. She has been published in Strange Horizons, Star*Line, Lone Star Stories, Weird Tales and The Shantytown Anomaly. Her novel, ''Heaven's Bones'' (a

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a '' pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land piece ...

tie-in) was published in September 2008.http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/2009/04/come-from-a-nameless-island-samantha-henderson/ Henderson had a story published in the original anthology of werewolf stories, ''Running With the Pack''. As a participant in Launch Pad, she developed a fourth-grade science class astronomy unit. She is treasurer of the

Science Fiction Poetry Association The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) is a society based in the United States with the aim of fostering an international community of writers and readers interested in poetry pertaining to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, ...

Awards and recognition

Her short story "Five Ways Jane Austen Never Died" was included in Prime Books' ''Fantasy: the Best of the Year'' for 2006. In 2009, she won second place in the

Rhysling Awards __NOTOC__ The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. The award name was dubbed by Andrew Joron in reference to a character in a science fiction story: the blind poet Rhysling, ...

in the long and short poem categories with "Spell" and "Hungry: Some Ghost Stories". Her

novel "Heaven's Bones" was one of the genre-related nominees for "Best Speculative Fiction Novel: Original" at the 2009 Scribe Awards. The poem "In the Astronaut Asylum", by Kendall Evans and Henderson won first place in the "Long Poem" category at the 2010 Rhysling Awards, and was one of the finalists at the 2010 Nebula Awards. Her poetry collection "The House of Forever" won second place in the "Best Chapbook" category at the 2013 Elgin Awards.

Short fiction

*"Dead Letter,"

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online magazine, online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and non-fiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in S ...

, March 2003 *"Five Ways Jane Austen Never Died," ''The Fortean Bureau'', March 2005 *""Manuscript Found Written in the Paw Prints of a Stoat", 2005 *"The Tailor and the Fairy", 2005 *"Scales", 2005 *"Route Nine", 2006 *"Girl with the Lute", 2006 *"Cinderella Suicide,"

, May 2006, also appeared in ''The Mammoth Book of Steampunk'' *"Wild Copper", 2006 *"Honey Mouth", 2006 *"Such a Lovely Shade of Green"

Fantasy Magazine A fantasy fiction magazine, or fantasy magazine, is a magazine which publishes primarily fantasy fiction. Not generally included in the category are magazines for children with stories about such characters as Santa Claus. Also not included are ...

, December 2006 *"Histories", 2006 *"Starry Night", 2007 *"Bottles"

, April 2007 *"Shallot", 2007 *"Curse"

Clarkesworld Magazine ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine edited by Neil Clarke. It released its first issue October 1, 2006, and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as ...

, December 2007 *"Pretty Mary" *"Garkain"

, April 2009 *"East of Chula Vista", 2009, ''Abyss and Apex'', Issue 29 *"The Red Bride", 2010 *"Escaping Salvation", 2011 *"Beside Calais", 2012 *"Everything You Were Looking For", 2012 *"Your Fairy Is Serenity Elfsong", 2013 *"My Generations Shall Praise", 2016 *"The Black Hole in Auntie Sutra's Handbag"

References

American fantasy writers American science fiction writers American women writers Living people People from Covina, California Writers from California Year of birth missing (living people) {{improve categories, date=March 2024