Kelly Link (born July 19, 1969) is an American editor and writer. Mainly known as an author of short stories, she published her first novel, The Book of Love, in 2024. Many of her stories have been described as slipstream or magical realism, combining science fiction, fantasy, horror, and literary fiction. She has won a Hugo Award, three Nebula Awards, and three World Fantasy Awards. She was one of the recipients of the 2018 MacArthur Fellowship.
Biography
Link is a graduate of Columbia University and of the MFA program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
She and her husband, Gavin Grant, manage Small Beer Press, a publisher based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Small Beer Press has an imprint for intermediate readers called Big Mouth House. Link and Grant co-edit the literary zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, published by Small Beer Press. They also co-edited St. Martin's Press's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology series with Ellen Datlow for five years, ending in 2008. Link was previously the slush reader for Sci Fiction.
In 2019, Link and Grant opened Book Moon, an independent bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Link taught at Lenoir–Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, with the Visiting Writers Series during the 2005-2006 semester. She has taught at a number of schools and workshops including Bard College, Cleveland State University, the Clarion Workshop at Michigan State University, and Clarion West Writers Workshop.
In 2018, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. She is a professor at Smith College, where she is the Elizabeth Drew Professor of English Language and Literature. She received an honorary degree from Smith College in 2023.
In 2024, Random House published Link's first novel, The Book of Love.
Awards
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! Work !! Year & Award!! Category!! Result !! Ref.
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| rowspan="2" |"Travels with the Snow Queen"
|1997 Otherwise Award
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| rowspan="4" |Stranger Things Happen
|2001 Salon.com Book Award
|Fiction
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|2002 World Fantasy Award
|Collection
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|2002 Locus Award
|Collection
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| rowspan="1" |Lull
|2003 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="3" |The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
(17th Annual Collection)
(with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant)
|2004 Bram Stoker Award
|Anthology
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|2005 Locus Award
|Anthology
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|2005 British Fantasy Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="1" |Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House
(with Gavin Grant)
|2009 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award
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|2005 Locus Award
|Novelette
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|2005 World Fantasy Award
|Short Fiction
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|2005 Nebula Award
|Novelette
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|2012 Premio Ignotus
|Foreign Story
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| rowspan="1" |Catskin
|2004 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="2" |The Hortlak
|2004 Locus Award
|Novelette
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|2004 World Fantasy Award
|Novella
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| rowspan="2" |Trampoline
|2004 Locus Award
|Anthology
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|2004 World Fantasy Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="9" |Magic for Beginners
|2005 BSFA Award
|Short Fiction
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|2006 Young Lions Fiction Award
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|2006 Locus Award
|Novella
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|2006 World Fantasy Award
|Novella
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|2005 Nebula Award
|Novella
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|2008 Grand prix de l'imaginaire
|Foreign Short Story/Collection of Foreign Short Stories
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| rowspan="5" |Magic for Beginners
|2005 International Horror Guild Award
|Collection
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|2005 Bram Stoker Award
|Fiction Collection
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|2005 Salon Book Award
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| rowspan="2" |"Some Zombie Contingency Plans"
|2005 Bram Stoker Award
|Long Fiction
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| rowspan="1" |The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (18th Annual Collection)
(with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant)
|2006 Locus Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="2" |The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (19th Annual Collection)
(with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant)
|2007 Locus Award
|Anthology
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|2007 British Fantasy Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="1" |Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
(with Gavin Grant)
|2007 Hugo Award
|Semiprozine
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| rowspan="1" |The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
|2008 Locus Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="1" |The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (20th Annual Collection)
(with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant)
|2008 Locus Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="2" |Pretty Monsters
|2009 Locus Award
|Collection
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|2009 World Fantasy Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="1" |"Secret Identity"
|2010 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="3" |"The Summer People"
|2011 Shirley Jackson Award
|Novelette
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|2012 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="1" |Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
(with Gavin Grant)
|2012 Locus Award
|Anthology
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| rowspan="2" |"I Can See Right Through You"
|2015 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="1" |"The Lady and the Fox"
|2015 Locus Award
|Short Story
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| rowspan="5" |Get in Trouble
|2016 Shirley Jackson Award
|Collection
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|2016 World Fantasy Award
|Collection
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|2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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|2016 Locus Award
|Collection
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|2016 Indies Choice Book Awards
|Adult Fiction
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| rowspan="2" |"The Game of Smash and Recovery"
|2016 Locus Award
|Short Story
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| rowspan="1" |
|2017 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award
|Contributions to the Genre
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| rowspan="1" |"The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear"
|2020 Locus Award
|Short Story
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| rowspan="1" |"Skinder's Veil"
|2022 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="5" |White Cat, Black Dog
|2023 Kirkus Prize
|Fiction
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|2024 BookTube Prize
|Fiction
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|2024 World Fantasy Award
|Collection
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| rowspan="2" |Prince Hat Underground
|2024 World Fantasy Award
|Novella
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|2024 Locus Award
|Novelette
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| rowspan="3" |The Book of Love
|2025 Compton Crook Award
| rowspan="2" |Novel
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|2024 Nebula Award
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|2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
|Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction
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Bibliography
Books
Selected stories
- "The Game of Smash and Recovery"
- "The Summer People"
- "Pretty Monsters"
- "Magic for Beginners"
- "The Faery Handbag"
- "Stone Animals"
- "Louise's Ghost"
- "The Specialist's Hat"
- "Travels with the Snow Queen"
As editor
- Trampoline (Small Beer Press, 2003)
- The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Volumes 17 - 21 (with Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant, St Martin's Griffin, 2004 - 2008)
- Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (with Gavin J. Grant, Candlewick Press, 2011)
- Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (with Gavin J. Grant, Candlewick Press, 2014)
- The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (with Gavin J. Grant, Del Rey Books, 2007)
References
External links
- Official website
- Small Beer Press