Fonda Lee (born March 10, 1979) is a Canadian-American author of

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

. She is best known for writing ''The Green Bone Saga'', the first of which, ''

Jade City Jade City is a "spot on the road" in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, near the Yukon, located on Highway 37, west of Good Hope Lake and close to Cassiar, in the Cassiar Highlands. The region around Jade City is rich with serpentinite (a ...

'', won the 2018

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

and was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine. ''The Green Bone Saga'' was also included on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".

Biography

Lee was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and currently resides in Portland, Oregon in the United States. She attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

where she earned her MBA. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a corporate strategist. Lee is a martial artist and has earned black belts in

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

and

kung fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...

Career

Lee's debut young adult science fiction novel, ''Zeroboxer'', was published by Flux Books and nominated for the 2016

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 ...

. It received positive reviews from ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' and ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'', which described it as "top-notch science fiction and a great sports novel too". Lee's ''Exo'' series for young adults was published by Scholastic beginning in 2017 with the first volume, ''Exo'', which was well received by critics, was nominated for the 2017

, and won the 2018

Aurora Award for Best YA Novel The Aurora Awards are granted annually by the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association and SFSF Boreal Inc. The Award for Best YA Novel was first awarded in 2013 as a separate category to the Best Novel category. Currently, the award has only been spli ...

in a tie. The second volume, ''Cross Fire'', was published in 2018, was nominated for the 2019

Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the pl ...

for Best Young Adult Novel, and won the 2019

. Her 2017 short story " Old Souls", was published in ''Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy'', and was nominated for the 2018

Aurora Award The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lure ...

for Best Short Fiction and the 2018

for Best Short Fiction.2018 World Fantasy Awards Winners
at ''

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

''; published November 4, 2018 Her 2020 short story, "I (28M) Created a Deepfake Girlfriend and Now My Parents Think We're Getting Married", was nominated for the 2020

for Best Short Story. Her debut novel for adults, ''

'', the first in ''The Green Bone Saga'', was published by

Orbit Books Orbit Books is an international publisher that specialises in science fiction and fantasy books. It is a division of Lagardère Publishing. History It was founded in 1974 as part of the Macdonald Futura publishing company. In 1992, its parent ...

in 2017 to critical acclaim. ''

'' won the 2018

and

for Best Novel, and was nominated for the 2018

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...

for Best Novel and 2018

for Best Fantasy Novel. ''

'' was included on ''Time'' magazine's list "The Best Fantasy Books of All Time". The second in the series, ''

Jade War ''Jade War'' is a 2019 fantasy novel by Fonda Lee published by Orbit Books, Orbit and is the sequel to Jade City (novel), ''Jade City''. It follows the island of Kekon as the jade-controlling clans are embroiled in an international war where jade i ...

'', was published in 2019, received a starred review and weekly pick status from ''

'', a starred review from ''

'', and was nominated for the

, Dragon Award,

, and

Ignyte Award The Ignyte Awards are an annual literary award for the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror works and achievements of the previous year. Established in 2020 by writers L. D. Lewis and Suzan Palumbo Suzan may refer to: * Suzan, Iran (disam ...

. The concluding third volume of the series, '' Jade Legacy'', was published in 2021 and also received acclaim from readers and critics, earning a starred review and weekly pick from ''

'', a starred review from ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'', winning the 2022

for Best Fantasy Novel and the 2022

for Best Novel, and earning a nomination for the Dragon Award for Best Novel. ''The Green Bone Saga'' series as a whole has also earned praise, earning a nomination for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

for Best Series and being included on

's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".. In 2022,

Subterranean Press Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Burton, Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition to publishing novels, short stor ...

published Lee's standalone

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

set prior to the events of ''The Green Bone Saga'' entitled ''The Jade Setter of Janloon''. In 2020, it was announced that a TV series based on ''

'' was being developed at

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

, with Lee serving as a consulting producer. In July 2022, it was announced that Peacock had canceled the project, but Lee shared on Twitter that the team were seeking another service to take it up. In 2022, it was announced that Lee's new fantasy

, ''Untethered Sky'', would be forthcoming from

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

in the winter of 2023.

Awards

Bibliography

Novels

Standalone

*''Zeroboxer'' ( Flux Books, 2015)

''Exo'' Series

*''Exo'' ( Scholastic, 2017) *''Cross Fire'' ( Scholastic, 2018)

''The Green Bone Saga''

*''The Jade Setter of Janloon'' (

, 2022) - standalone prequel novella *''

'' (

, 2017) *''

'' (

, 2019) *'' Jade Legacy'' (

, 2021)

Short fiction

*"Universal Print", first published in ''Crossed Genres'', issue #26 (2015) *"Spectral", first published in ''Perehelion'' (2016) *" Old Souls", first published in ''Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy'' (2017) *"Welcome to the Legion of Six", first published in ''The Overcast'', issue #102 (2019) *"I (28M) Created a Deepfake Girlfriend and Now My Parents Think We're Getting Married", first published in ''

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

'' (2020) *"The Eternal Cocktail Party of the Damned", first published in ''

Uncanny Magazine ''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction and fantasy online magazine, edited and published by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, based in Urbana, Illinois. Its mascot is a space unicorn. The editors-in-chief, who originally ...

'', issue #46 (2022) *''Untethered Sky'',

, (expected early 2023)

References

External links

* *

Interviews

Interview: Fonda Lee
Christian A. Coleman, ''

Lightspeed magazine ''Lightspeed'' is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine edited and published by John Joseph Adams. The first issue was published in June 2010 and it has maintained a regular monthly schedule since. The magazine currently publis ...

'', January 2018
Fonda Lee: When the Alien Invaders Win (excerpts)
''

'', July 2018
Interview with Fonda Lee (Jade City)
The Fantasy Hive, July 8, 2020
Fonda Lee: Exclusive Interview
Sirens Conference, April 19, 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Fonda 1979 births Living people 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American novelists American speculative fiction writers Canadian speculative fiction writers American women short story writers American women novelists Marvel Comics writers World Fantasy Award-winning writers Writers from Calgary Women science fiction and fantasy writers Women writers of young adult literature Stanford University alumni