Seanan McGuire (pronounced SHAWN-in; born January 5, 1978) is an American author and filker. McGuire is known for her urban fantasy novels. She uses the pseudonym Mira Grant to write science fiction/horror and the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker to write the "Up-and-Under" children's portal fantasy series. In 2010, she was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer by the World Science Fiction Convention. Her 2016 novella Every Heart a Doorway received a Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Locus Award, and Alex Award. In 2013, McGuire received a record five Hugo nominations in total, two for works as Grant and three under her own name. She writes numerous queer characters into her work.

Early life and education

McGuire was born on January 5, 1978, in Martinez, California. McGuire has stated that her mother, Micki McGuire, had "primary custody, two other children, no money, and an abusive husband who targeted [Seanan]". During the summer, McGuire traveled with her father, a carnival worker of Romani origin, an experience she described as "Bradbury-esque running wild and unfettered through farmers' fields, building Ferris wheels and living on funnel cake." At age nine, McGuire was diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder. McGuire attended University of California, Berkeley, where she studied folklore and herpetology.

Career

Before becoming a full-time writer, McGuire worked at a reptile rescue organization. McGuire has published filk music, poetry, short fiction, essays, and novels. Most follow speculative fiction themes of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Her earliest publication was a contribution to the June 2002 poetry anthology Speculon. She produced the musical album Pretty Little Dead Girl in 2006 and published her first short story in The Edge of Propinquity in 2008. In 2009, she published her first novel, Rosemary and Rue, which has resulted in her longest-running series, with the 18th book, The Innocent Sleep, published in 2023. In 2010, she published Feed under the pseudonym Mira Grant. This established Seanan McGuire as an urban fantasy writer and her pseudonym Mira Grant as a horror/science fiction writer. In 2018, McGuire began writing for Marvel Comics. She wrote two Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider series from 2018-2020 and has contributed to several other franchises.

Notable works

Series

Tie-ins

Comics

Short fiction

McGuire's short fiction has been published in Apex Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and others. Her works appear in anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, and John Joseph Adams. She has self-published hundreds of short stories. From 2008 to 2017, she posted installments of the Velveteen series to LiveJournal with the support of fan sponsorships. Tie-ins to her October Daye and InCryptid series are available for free on her website. In 2016, she launched a Patreon account to post monthly short stories for her subscribers.

Awards and nominations

Literary awards

McGuire holds the record for most Hugo Award nominations in a single year, with five nominations in 2013. McGuire was the first author to win the American Library Association's Alex Awards for two consecutive years. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series every year since its inception in 2017. In 2010, Feed was recognized as #74 out of the 100 top thriller novels of all time by NPR. It was also recognized as a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2010. In 2012, McGuire (as Mira Grant) was inducted in to the Darrell Awards Hall of Fame for the best American Mid-South regional speculative fiction. Locus has regularly included the Wayward Children books in their year-end list of the best novellas of the year, including Every Heart a Doorway (2016), Down Among the Sticks and Bones (2017), Come Tumbling Down (2020), and Lost in the Moment and Found (2023).

Filk awards

Pegasus Award presented by the Ohio Valley Filk Festival.

Personal life

McGuire was diagnosed as autistic in 2020 and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She identifies as pansexual, bisexual, and demisexual. McGuire lives in Washington state.