Mary Robinette Kowal (Harrison; born February 8, 1969) is an American author, translator, art director, and puppeteer. She has worked on puppetry for shows including Jim Henson Productions and the children's show LazyTown. As an author, she is a four-time Hugo Award winner, and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2019-2021.

Early life

Mary Robinette Harrison was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was named after both of her grandmothers, and describes her given name, "Mary Robinette," as a double first name. She attended William G. Enloe High School, and studied at East Carolina University. She graduated with a degree in Art Education with a minor in theater and began work as a professional puppeteer in 1989.

Career

Puppetry and art direction

Kowal has performed for the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Productions; and her own production company, Other Hand Productions. She also worked in Iceland on the children's television show LazyTown for two seasons. She was accepted as a participant in a Sesame Puppetry Workshop. Kowal served as art director for Shimmer Magazine and in 2010 was named art director for Weird Tales.

Literary work

In 2008, Kowal won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Kowal's work as an author includes "For Solo Cello, op. 12", (originally published in Cosmos Magazine and reprinted in Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, ) which made the preliminary ballot for the 2007 Nebula Awards. Her fiction has also appeared in Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Apex Digest, among other venues. Her debut novel Shades of Milk and Honey was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Two of her short fiction works have been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story: "Evil Robot Monkey" in 2009 and "For Want of a Nail", which won the award in 2011. Her novelette "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. The Calculating Stars, the first novel in her Lady Astronaut series, won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 2018 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Kowal translated the 2024 novel The Night Guest, by Hildur Knútsdóttir, from Icelandic into English; Kowal studied Icelandic while living in Reykjavik and working for the show LazyTown. It is Kowal's first work of translation. Kowal served as secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for two years. She was elected to the position of SFWA Vice President in 2010, and was elected SFWA President in 2019. In July 2018, after criticism that many authors who were Hugo award finalists at the August 2018 World Science Fiction Convention had not been selected to participate on that year's panels, Kowal took over as programming chair. She also served as chair of the DisCon III the 2021 Worldcon after the original chairs resigned.

Audio work

After appearing several times as a guest on the podcast Writing Excuses, Kowal became a full-time cast member at the start of the sixth season in 2011. Kowal is a voice actor and has recorded audiobooks for authors including John Scalzi, Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow and Kage Baker.

Awards and nominations

Novels

Short fiction

Children's books

Audio books