Caitlín R. Kiernan

Caitlín R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, was raised in Alabama and Florida, and studied paleontology, geology, and comparative zoology at both the University of Alabama and the University of Colorado, and has authored numerous scientific papers in the field of paleontology. Before turning to fiction writing in 1992, they'd already worked as a vertebrate paleontologist, a museum exhibit technician, a biology instructor, a reproductive rights activist, and a drag queen. Kiernan has published at least a dozen novels, and is a prolific short fiction author, having published more than 270 pieces of short fiction and several collections of those works, as well as comic adaptations of some of their works. Kiernan's works have won a Tiptree Award and numerous International Horror Guild, Stoker, and World Fantasy Awards, and have been finalists for the Nebula, Mythopoeic, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. In 2017, Brown University's John Hay Library established the Caitlín R. Kiernan Papers, archiving juvenilia, manuscripts, artwork, and other material related to their writing. Kiernan is currently a research associate and vertebrate fossil preparator at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama, where they live with their partner, Kathryn A. Pollnac, and two cats, Selwyn and Lydia.