Seanan McGuire (pronounced SHAWN-in; born January 5, 1978 in

Martinez, California Martinez (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Martínez'') is a city and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, t ...

) is an American author and filker. McGuire is known for her

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which places imaginary and unreal elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with quixotic plot-drivers, unusual character traits, and a platform for cl ...

novels. She uses the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Mira Grant to write

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

/ horror and the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker to write the "Up-and-Under" children's

portal 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 drama. ...

series. In 2010, she was awarded the

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

by the

World Science Fiction Convention Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

. Her 2016 novella '' Every Heart a Doorway'' received a

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

Alex Award The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18". Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young A ...

. In 2013, McGuire received a record five

Hugo Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on ...

nominations in total, two for works as Grant and three under her own name.

Biography

McGuire was born in California and attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She currently lives in Washington State. She has described her interests as including "swamps, long walks, long walks ''in'' swamps, things that live in swamps, horror movies, strange noises, musical theater, reality TV, comic books, finding pennies on the street, and venomous reptiles." McGuire frequently posts online about

roleplaying games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

, ''

My Little Pony ''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature c ...

'', and caring for her menagerie of cats. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked at a reptile rescue organization. She identifies as

pansexual , meaning "all" , definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender , classification = Sexual identity , parent = Bisexuality , synonyms = , associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and

demisexual Demisexuality is a term in which an individual does not experience primary sexual attraction – the type of attraction that is based on immediately observable characteristics such as appearance or smell and is experienced immediately aft ...

and writes numerous queer characters into her work. McGuire is of partial

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

descent.

Professional career

McGuire has published

filk music Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. Etymology and defin ...

, poetry, short fiction, essays, and novels. Most follow speculative fiction themes of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Her earliest publication was a contribution to the June 2002 poetry anthology ''Speculon.'' She produced the musical album ''Pretty Little Dead Girl'' in 2006 and published her first short story to the ''Edge of Propinquity'' in 2008. ''Rosemary and Rue'' was her first published novel, released in 2009. She published ''Feed'' under the pseudonym Mira Grant in 2010, thus establishing herself as an urban fantasy writer and her Grant persona as a horror/science fiction writer. Her longest-running series is the October Daye books, which began in 2009 with ''Rosemary and Rue.'' Sixteen books are currently available and the next installment is planned for September 2023. In 2018, McGuire began writing for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. She is the author of the

Spider-Gwen ''Spider-Gwen'' (also titled ''Ghost-Spider'') is an ongoing comic book series published by Marvel Comics that began February 2015. The series revolves around Gwen Stacy of Earth-65, an alternate universe version of Gwen Stacy that debuted in ...

series and has contributed to several other franchises.

Notable works

Series

* October Daye * InCryptid * Wayward Children * Alchemical Journeys * Newsflesh (as Mira Grant) * Parisitology (as Mira Grant) * Up-and-Under (as A. Deborah Baker)

Franchise tie-ins

* '' Star Wars: Canto Bight'' anthology (contributor, as Mira Grant) * Marvel's

comics * ''

Deadlands ''Deadlands'' is a genre-mixing alternate history role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group i ...

: Boneyard'' * ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...

: Declassified'' *

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

short stories

Short fiction

McGuire's short fiction has been published in

Apex Magazine ''Apex Magazine'', also previously known as ''Apex Digest'', is an American horror and science fiction magazine. This subscription webzine, ''Apex Magazine'', contains short fiction, reviews, and interviews. It has been nominated for several awa ...

, Nightmare Magazine,

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 ...

, and others. Her works appear in anthologies edited by

Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris Schulz (born November 25, 1951) is an American author who specializes in Mystery fiction, mysteries. She is best known for her book series ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', which was adapted as the TV series ''True Blood''. The ...

Jim Butcher Jim Butcher (born October 26, 1971) is an American author., He has written the contemporary fantasy ''The Dresden Files'', ''Codex Alera'', and ''Cinder Spires'' book series. Personal life Butcher was born in Independence, Missouri, in 1971. He ...

, and

John Joseph Adams John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher. Career Editor Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 20 ...

. She has self-published hundreds of short stories. From 2008-2017, she posted installments of the Velveteen series to

LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...

with the support of fan sponsorships. Tie-ins to her October Daye and InCryptid series are available for free on her website. In 2016, she launched a

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...

account to post monthly short stories for her subscribers.

Anticipated releases

* Up-and-Under #3: ''Into the Windwracked Wilds'' (October 25, 2022) * Wayward Children #8: ''Lost in the Moment and Found'' (January 10, 2023) * InCryptid #12: ''Backpacking Through Bedlam'' (March 2023) * ''Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology'' (March 2023) * October Daye #17: ''Sleep No More'' (September 2023) * ''Overwatch: Declassified.

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...

'' (October 10, 2023)

Awards and nominations

Literary awards

McGuire holds the record for most

nominations in a single year, with five nominations in 2013. McGuire was the first author to win the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

Alex Awards The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18". Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young A ...

for two consecutive years. She has been nominated for the

Hugo Award for Best Series The Hugo Award for Best Series is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The award is available for series of science fiction or fanta ...

every year since its inception in 2017. In 2010, ''Feed'' was recognized as #74 out of the 100 top thriller novels of all time by

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 ...

. It was also recognized as a

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 ...

Best Books of 2010. In 2012, McGuire (as Mira Grant) was inducted in to the Darrell Awards Hall of Fame for the best American Mid-South regional speculative fiction.

Filk awards

Pegasus Award The Pegasus Award is the premier award for filk music and is annually hosted at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF). Awards The Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. As science fiction (sci-fi) became better kn ...

presented by the Ohio Valley Filk Festival.

References

External links

SeananMcGuire.com
* *
Mira Grant
at LC Authorities, with 4 records {{DEFAULTSORT:McGuire, Seanan 1978 births 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century LGBT people American comics writers American fantasy writers American horror novelists American LGBT novelists American women novelists American women short story writers Bisexual writers Bisexual musicians Bisexual women Female comics writers Filkers Hugo Award-winning writers John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winners LGBT comics creators LGBT people from California Living people Marvel Comics writers Nebula Award winners Novelists from California Pansexual women People from Martinez, California Urban fantasy writers Women horror writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Romani writers