Holly Phillips

Holly Phillips was born in Nelson, British Columbia, and grew up in various small towns in BC, settling in the little industrial town of Trail when she was eight. After graduating high school, she attended Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. She left to do some traveling in England and West Africa before returning to the university, but developed fibromyalgia syndrome before graduating and was unable to finish her degree. She returned home in 1994, and began taking creative writing classes at a community arts collective. She sold her first story, "No Such Thing as an Ex-Con", to On Spec in 2000, followed by a dozen more stories over the next few years, most in small-press magazines. In 2001 she joined On Spec's editorial board, where she read slush for four years. Her debut collection In the Palace of Repose (2005) won a Sunburst award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy and Crawford awards. The title story was a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award, and her story "The Other Grace" (2005) was a World Fantasy finalist. Her first novel The Burning Girl appeared in 2006 from Prime Books, and Engine's Child is forthcoming from Del Rey in 2008. Holly Phillips still lives in Trail, British Columbia, where in addition to writing she plays and sings Celtic folk music with a trio called Pickled Thistle.