John Kessel


John Joseph Vincent Kessel is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer, and the author of four solo novels, Good News From Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, The Moon and the Other, and Pride and Prometheus, and one novel, Freedom Beach in collaboration with his friend James Patrick Kelly. Kessel is married to author Therese Anne Fowler.

Education

Kessel earned a B.A. in Physics and English from the University of Rochester in 1972, followed by a M.A. in English from University of Kansas in 1974, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1981, where he studied under science fiction writer and scholar James Gunn. Since 1982 Kessel has taught classes in American literature, science fiction, fantasy, and fiction writing at North Carolina State University, and helped organize the MFA Creative Writing program at NCSU, serving as its first director.

Publications

Kessel won a Nebula Award in 1982 for his novella Another Orphan, in which the protagonist finds himself living inside the novel Moby-Dick. His short story "Buffalo" won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and the Locus poll in 1992. He won a second Nebula Award for his 2008 novelette Pride and Prometheus, a melding the tales of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The intervening 26 years between his two Nebula Awards was the longest gap between competitive awards in Nebula history. The novelette also won a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award, and was expanded into a novel by the same name in 2018.
His novella "Stories for Men" shared the 2002 James Tiptree Jr. Award for science fiction dealing with gender issues with M. John Harrison's novel Light. He has been nominated three times for a World Fantasy Award: 1993 for the Meeting in Infinity collection, 1999 for the short fiction "Every Angel is Terrifying", and 2009 for the short story "Pride and Prometheus".
Kessel is also a widely published science fiction and fantasy critic. His works of criticism include the 2004 essay on Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality". With Mark L. Van Name, Kessel created the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop. Kessel has also edited, with James Patrick Kelly, three collections of contemporary sf short stories, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, and The Secret History of Science Fiction.
In 1994 his play Faustfeathers received the Paul Green Playwrights' Prize. In 2007 his story "A Clean Escape" was adapted by Sam Egan for ABC's science fiction anthology series Masters of Science Fiction.

Novels

Short fiction

;Collections
TitleYearFirst publishedAwards/nominationsNotes
Meeting in Infinity1992World Fantasy Award nominee
The Pure Product1997
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories2008
The Dark Ride2022
The Presidential Papers2024

;Stories and other short works
TitleYearFirst publishedAwards/nominationsNotes
"Another orphan"1982Nebula Award winner
"Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner"1988Nebula Award nominee
Another orphan1989Novella
"Buffalo"1991Sturgeon Award winner, Locus Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, Nebula Award nominee
The Franchise1993Nebula Award nominee, Hugo Award nomineeNovelette
The Miracle of Ivar Avenue1996Nebula Award nomineeNovelette
"Every Angel is Terrifying"1998World Fantasy Award nominee
Ninety Percent of Everything1999Nebula Award nomineeNovella
"Stories for Men"2002James Tiptree Jr. Award winner, Nebula Award nominee
Pride and Prometheus2008Nebula Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor ListNovelette
Spirit level2020Novelette

Anthologies and collections (edited)