Ellen Klages

Ellen Klages (, ; born 1954) is an American science, science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction writer who lives in San Francisco. Her novelette "Basement Magic" won the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. She had previously been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. Her first (non-genre) novel, The Green Glass Sea, was published by Viking Children's Books in 2006. It won the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the New Mexico Book Award, and the Judy Looez Memorial Award. Portable Childhoods, a collection of her short fiction published by Tachyon Publications, was named a 2008 World Fantasy Award finalist. White Sands, Red Menace, the sequel to The Green Glass Sea, was published in Fall 2008 and won the New Mexico and California Book Awards. In 2010, her short story "Singing on a Star" was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. In 2018 her novella Passing Strange won the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards and was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. In 2019, her novel Out of Left Field won the Children’s History Book Prize and the Ohioana Book Award.

Biography Ellen Janeway Klages was born in Columbus, Ohio, on July 9, 1954, and now lives in San Francisco. She holds a degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan. In 1992, she began working at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where she was selected to co-author a children's science activity book with science fiction author Pat Murphy. Murphy encouraged Klages to write her own stories as well. Her first novelette, "Time Gypsy", was published in 1999 and was a finalist for the Nebula Award and Hugo Award. She was also nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2000. Besides her writing, she also graduated from the Second City Conservatory, the Clarion South Workshop, and has served on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree Jr. Award for twenty years.

Klages is also known for doing stand-up comedy and other performances as an auctioneer annually at Wiscon. The Wiscon Tiptree Auction is a fundraiser for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award; Klages also serves on the Board for the award. "At past Tiptree auctions, auctioneer/comedian Ellen Klages has auctioned off her own hair, Mary Doria Russell's brassiere, a hand-knitted uterus, a kangaroo-scrotum purse, a cherry pie, and a Xena lawn butt". Klages was a Guest of Honor at Wiscon 33.

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