Carol Emshwiller

Who is Carol Emshwiller?

Carol Emshwiller is an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes ranging from the Nebula Award to the Philip K. Dick Award. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction." Among her novels are Carmen Dog and The Mount. She has also written two cowboy novels called Ledoyt and Leaping Man Hill. Her most recent novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.

She is the widow of the artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller. Their daughter Susan Emshwiller co-wrote the movie Pollock. Their son Peter Emshwiller is the author of two novels. Their daughter Eve is a botanist and ethnobotanist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Emshwiller was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She lives in New York City most of the year, and spends her summers in Owens Valley, California, and has used this setting in her stories.

In 2005, she was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. Her short story, "Creature" won the 2002 Nebula Award for best short story and "I Live With You" won the 2005 Nebula Award in the same category.