Nicola Griffith (; born 30 September 1960) is a British American novelist, essayist, and teacher. She has won the Washington State Book Award (twice), Nebula Award, James Tiptree, Jr. Award, World Fantasy Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and six Lambda Literary Awards. In 2024 she was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 2025, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 41st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. In addition to her fiction, Griffith is known for her contributions to feminist and queer literature, her disability advocacy, and her role in founding the Literary Prize Database Project and the #CripLit community for disabled writers.

Personal life

thumb|Nicola Griffith in 2007

Griffith was born 30 September 1960 in Leeds, to Margaret and Eric Griffith. Griffith's family is Catholic and she is one of five children. She knew she was gay by age 13.

Griffith is cousin to British actor Clare Higgins.

Griffith's earliest surviving literary efforts include an illustrated booklet she was encouraged to create to prevent her from making trouble among her fellow nursery school students. and Rosemary Sutcliff; fantastic fiction including the works of E. E. Smith, Frank Herbert, and J. R. R. Tolkien; nonfiction and history – Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was a particular favorite. perhaps the first same-sex commitment announcement the paper had published. Griffith and Eskridge were legally married 4 September 2013.

Griffith wanted citizenship so she could remain in the country with her wife, but because she was a lesbian, she couldn't receive citizenship through marriage, and all other pathways were closed. After much effort, Griffith received permission to live and work in the United States based on her "importance as a writer of lesbian/science fiction," making her the first out lesbian to receive a National Interest Waiver.

Career

In late 1987 Griffith made her first professional fiction sale: "Mirrors and Burnstone" to Interzone. Her debut novel, Ammonite, received several offers from publishers, including St. Martin's Press, Avon Press, and Del Rey Books.

Literary Activism

In 2015, Griffith "founded the Literary Prize Data working group whose purpose initially was to assemble data on literary prizes in order to get a picture of how gender bias operates within the trade publishing ecosystem."

In 2015 she began #CripLit, an online community for disabled writers."

Critics have described Stay as both an allegorical and cautionary novel, emphasizing its focus on the protagonist’s effort to reclaim her sense of self following profound personal loss.

Griffith released She Is Here in February 2026. It contains six nonfiction essays, four poems, three short stories, a novella, drawings, and an interview with Nisi Shawl.

Griffith spent nearly ten years researching early medieval Britain for Hild, drawing on historical and scientific methods to construct the novel’s setting and social structures.

Griffith has identified Hild as her first explicitly bisexual protagonist, written in response to the underrepresentation of bisexual characters in fiction.

Critics have noted So Lucky incorporates disability activism and critiques medical and pharmaceutical systems.

Griffith has described Aud Torvingen as a central figure in her crime fiction series and planned additional novels featuring the character.

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|James Tiptree, Jr. Award

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|Lambda Literary Award

| Lesbian Science Fiction/Fantasy

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|Touching Fire

|James Tiptree, Jr. Award

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! rowspan="2" |1994

| rowspan="2" |Ammonite

|Arthur C. Clarke Award

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|Locus Award

| First Novel

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!1995

|"Yaguara"

|Nebula Award

| Novella

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! rowspan="2" |1996

| rowspan="2" |Slow River

|Nebula Award

| Novel

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|Lambda Literary Award

| Science Fiction/Fantasy

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!1998

|Bending the Landscape

|Lambda Literary Award

| Science Fiction/Fantasy

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! rowspan="4" |1999

| rowspan="2" |The Blue Place

|Gaylactic Spectrum Awards

| Novel

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|Lambda Literary Award

| Lesbian Mystery

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| rowspan="2" |Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction

|Gaylactic Spectrum Awards

|Other Work||

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|Lambda Literary Award

|Science Fiction/Fantasy||

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! rowspan="3" |2002

| rowspan="3" |Bending the Landscape: Horror

|Gaylactic Spectrum Awards

|Other Work

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|Lambda Literary Award

|Anthology

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|Lambda Literary Award

|Science Fiction/Fantasy

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! rowspan="2" |2005

| rowspan="2" |With Her Body

|Gaylactic Spectrum Awards

|Other Work

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|Lambda Literary Award

|Science Fiction/Fantasy

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!2008

|And Now We Are Going to Have a Party

|Lambda Literary Award

| Lesbian Memoir or Biography

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!2010

|"It Takes Two"

|Hugo Award

| Novelette

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! rowspan="3" |2013

| rowspan="5" |Hild

|Bisexual Book Awards

|Fiction

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|James Tiptree, Jr. Award

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|Nebula Award

|Novel

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! rowspan="2" |2014

|John W. Campbell Memorial Award

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|Washington State Book Award

|Fiction

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!2018

| rowspan="4" |So Lucky

|Over the Rainbow Booklist

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! rowspan="3" |2019

|Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award

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|Tournament of Books

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|Washington State Book Award

|Fiction

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! rowspan="2" |2022

| rowspan="6" |Spear

|Los Angeles Times Book Prize

|Ray Bradbury Prize

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|Nebula Award

|Novel

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! rowspan="4" |2023

|HWA Crown Awards

|Gold

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|Locus Award

|Fantasy Novel

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|Ursula K. Le Guin Prize

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|World Fantasy Award

|Novel

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Publications

Fiction

Aud Torvingen series

The Hild Sequence series

Nonfiction

Anthologies

  • Bending the Landscape: Fantasy, Overlook Books, (1997, with Stephen Pagel)
  • Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction, Overlook Books, (1998, with Stephen Pagel)
  • Bending the Landscape: Horror, Overlook Books, (2001, with Stephen Pagel)

Collections

Short fiction

  • "An Other Winter's Tale" (1987)
  • "Mirrors and Burnstone" (1988)
  • "The Other" (1989)
  • "We Have Met the Alien" (1990)
  • "The Voyage South" (1990)
  • "Down the Path of the Sun" (1990)
  • "Song of Bullfrogs, Cry of Geese" (1991)
  • "Wearing My Skin" (1991)
  • "Touching Fire" (1993)
  • "Yaguara" (1994)
  • "A Troll Story" (2000)
  • "It Takes Two" (2009)

Critical studies and reviews of Griffith's work

  • Review of Hild.

References

  • Official website
  • The story behind Hild – Online essay by Nicola Griffith : Freed by Constraint at Upcoming4.me
  • 30 years ago : a love story in photos by Nicola Griffith, 2018