Eileen Kernaghan

Eileen Kernaghan at the launch of her book Sophie, In Shadow.

Eileen Kernaghan (born January 6, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, and four-time winner of the Prix Aurora Award for English-language Canadian speculative fiction. The settings of her historical fantasy novels range from the prehistoric Indus Valley and eighteenth century Bhutan, to Elizabethan England and nineteenth century Scandinavia. She lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.

Biography Eileen Kernaghan grew up on a dairy farm outside Grindrod, British Columbia, Canada, population 600. The reading material she found on the family shelves - Greek myths, historical novels, G. A. Henty's boys' adventure books, a collection of Weird Tales and Thrilling Wonder Stories - helped to shape her writing career.

Her first published story, written at the age of twelve, appeared in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. It earned her a byline, an illustration, and a check for $12.65. Her next appearance in print, twenty years later, was with a cover story in the New York science fiction magazine Galaxy. She went on to write the "Grey Isles" series, a Bronze Age trilogy based on the origins of Stonehenge. Journey to Aprilioth, Songs from the Drowned Lands and The Sarsen Witch were published by Ace Books during the 1980s. Kernaghan was nominated eleven times for Canadian science fiction and fantasy awards, nine Auroras and two Sunburst Awards, winning Aurora Awards for the following titles:

1985: Songs from the Drowned Lands (Ace Books) — novel

1990: “Carpe Diem” (On Spec Fall 1989) — short-form, English

2001: The Snow Queen (Thistledown Press) — long-form work in English

2014: “Night Journey: West Coast ” (Tesseracts Seventeen) — poem/song in English

Her day jobs have included elementary school teaching, arts administration, operating a used bookstore with her husband Pat, and, for many years, teaching creative writing at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, and Port Moody's Kyle Centre. She has three adult children and four grandchildren.