Samantha Mills

Samantha Mills is an American author and archivist. She received numerous awards for her short story "Rabbit Test", praise for her debut novel, and her other short stories have been longlisted for several science fiction and fantasy awards.

Early life and education Mills grew up in Southern California. According to Mills, she wrote her first short story, “What Hapend March Ninth!!” at seven years old after her sister threw a rock at her during a water fight. She continued reading and writing throughout her childhood.

Mills earned a B.A. in Pre- and Early Modern Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master's in Information and Library Science from San Jose State University. Reviewer Niall Harrison described it as an "incandescent" response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. However, in January 2024 there was a large controversy over the 2023 Hugo Award nomination process, when internal documents were released showing that Worldcon leaders had decided to censor certain authors by excluding them from the nomination process. In response to these allegations, Mills wrote a blogpost titled "'Rabbit Test' unwins the Hugo," explaining the situation and stating that she couldn't truly feel she was a Hugo winner, so she was removing all references to the award from her media presence. The narrative alternates between two points in Winged Zemolai's life: as a youth, training to be a warrior under the powerful Winged Vodaya, and as an adult, disgraced and indecisive. The relationship between Zemolai and Vodaya is a key tension throughout the book. One critic praised the book's consideration of the impacts of abuse and its focus on female and non-binary protagonists.

Mills began writing the novel The Wings Upon Her Back in 2017. She initially planned it as an action fantasy but added themes of fascism and strongmen politics into the book, inspired by the themes she saw in U.S. politics at the time. Mills revised the book repeatedly to strengthen these themes. The book was published by Tachyon Publications. Critics praised the examination of the consequences of Zemolai's choices and the complex impacts of fascism and religious zealotry.

In a May 8, 2024 interview, Mills stated that she was working on a new fantasy novel, nicknamed The Secret Sea Monster WIP.

Selected works

Novels

The Wings Upon Her Back (2024) "Strange Waters" – Strange Horizons (April 2, 2018) "Adrianna in Pomegranate" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #271 (February 14, 2019) "One Part Per Billion" – Diabolical Plots, Issue #50 (April 15, 2019) "Laugh Lines" – Daily Science Fiction (June 10, 2019) "Four of Seven" – Escape Pod, Episode #687 (July 4, 2019) "Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil" – Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 2 (February 15, 2020) "Mama Cascade" – Deep Magic (Spring 2020) "The Limits of Magic" – Apparition Literary Magazine, Issue 11: Redemption (July 15, 2020) "Anchorage" – Uncanny Magazine, Issue 36 (Fall 2020) "Spindles" – Kaleidotrope (Spring 2021) "Rabbit Test" – Uncanny Magazine, Issue 49 (2022) "10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days" – Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63 (2025)

Awards