Happy birthday to the Hugo and Nebula award winner Nancy Kress

Photo by Liza Trombi

The author of over 30 books, Nancy Kress‘ first novel The Prince of Morning Bells (1981) appeared to much acclaim. In 1986, she won her first of six Nebula Awards with the short story “Out of All Them Bright Stars.” It was Kress’ second Nebula and first Hugo win for the 1991 novella Beggars In Spain that cemented her legacy. Her other Nebula Award-winning works include “The Flowers of Adult Prison (1996; also won Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award),” Fountain Of Age (2007), AFTER THE FALL, BEFORE THE FALL, DURING THE FALL (2013), and YESTERDAY’S KIN (2015). Among Kress’ other award-winning stories are Probability Space (2003, John W. Campbell Memorial Award) and The Erdmann Nexus (2009 Hugo Award). Other acclaimed works include An Alien Light (1988), Oaths And Miracles (1996), Maximum Light (1997), DANCING ON AIR (1997), Probability Moon (2000), DOGS (2008), Flash Point (2012), Yesterday’s Kin trilogy (Tomorrow’s Kin [2017], If Tomorrow Comes [2018], Terran Tomorrow [2018]), The Eleventh Gate (2020), SEA CHANGE (2020), and Observer (2023 with Robert Lanza). Under the name Anna Kendall, Kress wrote the young adult The Soulvine Moor trilogy (Crossing Over [2010], Dark Mist Rising [2011], A Bright and Terrible Sword [2012]).

Her numerous short stories have been collected in Trinity and Other Stories (1985), The Aliens of Earth (1993), Beaker’s Dozen (1998), Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories (2008), Future Perfect: Six Stories of Genetic Engineering (2012), The Body Human: Three Stories of Future Medicine (2012), AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence (2012), Fountain of Age: Stories (2012), The Best of Nancy Kress (2015), and Danses aériennes [French] (2017). Kress edited Nebula Awards Showcase 2003 (2003).

A regular at the Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Kress was, during the Winter of 2008/09, the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig’s Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany. She has produced trio of books on the craft for Writer’s Digest: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends (1993), Dynamic Characters (1998), and Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint (2004).

All of us a Tachyon wish the extraordinary Nancy, a happy birthday.