Ann Leckie


Ann Leckie is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which features artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were both nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, and Translation State, published in 2023, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe.
Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, was published in February 2019.

Career

Having grown up as a science fiction fan in St. Louis, Missouri, Leckie's attempts in her youth to get her science fiction works published were unsuccessful. One of her few publications from that time was an unattributed bodice-ripper in True Confessions.
After giving birth to her children in 1996 and 2000, boredom as a stay-at-home mother motivated her to sketch a first draft of what would become Ancillary Justice for National Novel Writing Month 2002. In 2005, Leckie attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop, where she studied under Octavia Butler. After that, she wrote Ancillary Justice over a period of six years; it was picked up by the publisher Orbit in 2012 and published the following year.
Leckie has published numerous short stories, in outlets including Subterranean Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Realms of Fantasy. Her short stories have been selected for inclusion in year's best collections, such as The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Rich Horton.
She edited the science fiction and fantasy online magazine Giganotosaurus from 2010 to 2013, and is assistant editor of the PodCastle podcast. She served as the secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2012 to 2013.

Imperial Radch trilogy

Leckie's debut novel Ancillary Justice, the first book of the Imperial Radch space opera trilogy, was published to critical acclaim in October 2013 and won all of the principal English-language science fiction awards. It follows Breq, the sole survivor of a starship destroyed by treachery and vessel of that ship's artificial consciousness, as she attempts to avenge herself on the ruler of her empire.
The sequel, Ancillary Sword, was published in October 2014, and the conclusion, Ancillary Mercy, was published in October 2015. "Night's Slow Poison" and "She Commands Me and I Obey" are short stories set in the same universe.

Other novels

In 2015, Orbit Books purchased two additional novels from Leckie. The first, Provenance, is set in the Imperial Radch universe. The second was to have been an unrelated science fiction novel. In April 2018, Orbit announced that Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, would be published in early 2019. Another standalone novel set in the Imperial Radch universe entitled Translation State was published on June 6, 2023.

Novels

Set in the Ancillary universe

;Imperial Radch trilogy
  1. Ancillary Justice.. Orbit..
  2. Ancillary Sword.. Orbit..
  3. Ancillary Mercy.. Orbit..
;Other novels
  • Provenance.. Orbit..
  • Translation State.. Orbit..
  • Radiant Star.. Orbit..

    Standalone novels

  • The Raven Tower.. Orbit..

    Collections

  • Lake of Souls.. Orbit..

    Short fiction

  • "Hesperia and Glory".. Subterranean Magazine 4.
  • "Footprints".. Postcards from Hell: The First Thirteen.
  • "The Snake's Wife".. Helix #6.
  • "Needle and Thread" - co-authored by Rachel Swirsky.. Lone Star Stories #29.
  • "The Nalendar".. Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue #36.
  • "Clickweed".. A Field Guide to Surreal Botany.
  • "Marsh Gods".. Strange Horizons.
  • "The God of Au". Helix #8.
  • "The Endangered Camp".. Clockwork Phoenix 2.
  • "The Sad History of the Tearless Onion". PodCastle Miniature #33.
  • "The Unknown God".. Realms of Fantasy.
  • "Beloved of the Sun".. Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
  • "Maiden, Mother, Crone".. Realms of Fantasy.
  • "The Endangered Camp".. Clockwork Phoenix 2.
  • "Saving Bacon".. PodCastle #322.
  • "The Creation and Destruction of the World". PodCastle #352
  • "Another Word for World".. Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Stories Inspired by Microsoft.
  • "The Justified".. The Mythic Dream.
;Set in the Ancillary universe
  • "Night's Slow Poison". Electric Velocipede, reprinted. Tor.
  • "She Commands Me and I Obey".. Strange Horizons.

    Critical studies and reviews of Leckie's work

Awards and nominations

Leckie earned a degree in music from Washington University in St. Louis in 1989. She has since held various jobs, including as a waitress, a receptionist, a land surveyor, a lunch lady, and a recording engineer. She is married to David Harre, with whom she has a son and daughter, and lives with her family in St. Louis, Missouri.