Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (born May 26, 1964 in Skerries, Dublin, Ireland) is the author of numerous science fiction and dark fantasy works, including many comics, more than seventy published short stories, and numerous scientific papers.

Overview

As a small child, she moved to the United States with her mother. Much of her childhood was spent in the small town of Leeds, Alabama, and her early interests included herpetology, paleontology, and fiction writing. As a teenager, she lived in Trussville, Alabama, and, in high school, began doing volunteer work at a small geological museum in Birmingham, Alabama and spending summers on her first archeological and paleontological digs. Kiernan attended college at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying geology and vertebrate paleontology, and she held both museum and teaching positions before finally turning to fiction writing in 1992. In 1988, she described the new genus and species of mosasaur, Selmasaurus russelli. Her first novel, The Five of Cups, was written between June '92 and early '93, though it wasn't published until 2003. Her first published short story was "Persephone," a dark science-fiction tale, released in 1995. Her most recent scientific publication is a paper on the biostratigraphy of Alabama mosasaurs, published in the Journal of Paleontolgy (2002).

Her novels include Silk (1998), Threshold (2001), Low Red Moon (2003), The Five of Cups (2003), Murder of Angels (2004), and The Dry Salvages (2004). Her short fiction has been selected for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and The Year's Best Science Fiction, and has been collected in Tales of Pain and Wonder (2000), Wrong Things (2001; with Poppy Z. Brite), From Weird and Distant Shores (2002), To Charles Fort, With Love (2005), and Frog Toes and Tentacles (2005). Her comics, scripted for DC/Vertigo, include The Dreaming, The Girl Who Would Be Death, and, most recently, Bast: Eternity Game.

She has recently completed her seventh novel, Daughter of Hounds. As of 2002, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with her partner, photographer Kathryn Pollnac.

Music

Between 1996 and 1997, Kiernan also fronted an Athens, Georgia-based "goth-folk-blues" band," Death's Little Sister ^*, named for Neil Gaiman's character, Delirium. She was the band's vocalist and lyricist, and the group enjoyed some success on local college radio and played shows in Athens and Atlanta. Kiernan has said in interviews that she left the band in February 1997 because of her increased responsibilities writing for DC Comics and because her novel Silk had recently sold. She was briefly involved in a studio project two year later, Crimson Stain Mystery, which produced one EP to accompany a limited edition of Silk, illustrated by Clive Barker (Gauntlet Press, 2000).

Awards

International Horror Guild Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)

Barnes and Noble Maiden Voyage Award, Best First Novel 1998 (Silk)

International Horror Guild Award, Best Novel 2001 (Threshold)

International Horror Guild Award, Best Short Story 2001 ("Onion")

Bibliography

Novels

• Silk (1998; Penguin-Putnam)
• Threshold (2001; Penguin-Putnam)
• The Five of Cups (2003; Subterranean Press)
• Low Red Moon (2003; Penguin-Putnam)
• Murder of Angels (2004; Penguin-Putnam)

Short Fiction Collections

• Tales of Pain and Wonder (2000; Gauntlet Press)
  • " Anamorphosis"
  • "To This Water ((Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1889)"
  • "Bela' Plot"
  • "Tears Seven Times Salt"
  • "Superheroes"
  • "Glass Coffin"
  • "Breakfast in the House of the Rising Sun"
  • "Estate"
  • "The Last Child or Lir"
  • "A Story for Edward Gorey"
  • "Salammbô"
  • "Postcards from the King of Tides"
  • "Rats Live on No Evil Star"
  • "Salmagundi"
  • "Paedomorphosis"
  • "In the Water Works (Birmingham, Alabama 1888)"
  • "The Long Hall on the Top Floor"
  • "San Andreas"
  • "Angels You Can See Through"
  • "Lafayette"
  • "...Between the Gargoyle Trees"
  • Epilogue: "Zelda Fitzgerald in Ballet Attire" (poem)
• Wrong Things (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001; Subterranean Press)
  • "The Crystal Empire" (by Poppy Z. Brite)
  • "Onion"
  • "The Rest of the Wrong Thing" (written with Poppy Z. Brite)
• From Weird and Distant Shores (2002; Subterranean Press)
  • Preface—"Playing God in Other People's Sandboxes"
  • "Escape Artist"
  • "The Comedy of St. Jehanne d'Arc"
  • "Giants in the Earth"
  • "Found Angels"
  • "Two Worlds and In Between"
  • "The King of Birds"
  • "By Turns"
  • "Persephone"
  • Between the Flatirons and the Deep Green Sea"
  • "Hoar Isis"
  • "Night Story 1973" (with Poppy Z. Brite)
• To Charles Fort, With Love (2005; Subterranean Press)
  • Preface—"Looking for Innsmouth"
  • "Valentia"
  • "Spindleshanks (New Orleans, 1956)"
  • "So Runs the World Away"
  • "Standing Water"
  • "La Mer des Rêves"
  • "The Road of Pins"
  • "Onion"
  • "Apokatastasis"
  • "La Peau Verte"
  • "The Dead and the Moonstruck"
    • The Dandridge Cycle:
      • "A Redress for Andromeda"
      • "Nor the Demons Down Under the Sea"
      • "Andromeda Among the Stones"

Uncollected short fiction (excluding chapbooks)

• "The Drowned Geologist" (Shadows Over Baker Street, 2003; Del Rey)
• "Riding the White Bull" (Argosy #2, 2004; Coppervale International)
• "From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6" (Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, 2005; Fedogan and Bremer)
• "Faces in Revolving Souls" (Outsiders, 2005; Roc)
• "The Pearl Diver" (Futureshocks, 2005; Roc)
• "Bradbury Weather" (Subterranean #2, 2005; Subterranean Press)

Chapbooks

• Candles for Elizabeth (1998; Meisha Merlin Publishing)
• A Study for "Estate" (2000; Gauntlet Press)
• On the Road to Jefferson (2002; Subterranean Press)
• Waycross (2002; Subterranean Press)
• Trilobite: The Writing of Threshold (2003; Subterranean Press)
• Embrace the Mutation (with J. K. Potter; 2003; Subterranean Press)
• Alabaster (2003; Camelot Books)
• Mercury (2004; Subterranean Press)
• The Worm in My Mind's Eye (2004; Subterranean Press)
• False Starts (2005; Subterranean Press)
• A Little Damned Book of Days (2005; Subterranean Press)
• The Merewife: A Prologue (2005; Subterranean Press)

Short Hardbacks

• In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers (2002; Subterranean Press)
• The Dry Salvages (2004; Subterranean Press)
• Frog Toes and Tentacles (2005; Subterranean Press)

Comics/Graphic Novels

• The Dreaming (August 1997- May 2001)
• The Girl Who Would Be Death (four-issue miniseries; 1998-1999)
• Bast: Eternity Game (three-issue miniseries; 2002)

Scientific Publications

• Kiernan, C. R., and Schwimmer, D. R. 2004. First record of a velociraptorine theropod (Tetanurae, Dromaeosauridae) from the Eastern Gulf Coastal United States. The Mosasaur 7:89-93.
• Kiernan, C. R. 2002. Stratigraphic distribution and habitat segregation of mosasaurs in the Upper Cretaceous of western and central Alabama, with an historical review of Alabama mosasaur discoveries. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(1):91-103.
• Schwimmer, D. R. and Kiernan, C.R. 2001. Eastern Late Cretaceous theropods in North America and the crossing of the Interior Seaway. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(3):99A.
• Kiernan, C. R. 1992. Clidastes Cope, 1868 (Reptilia, Sauria): proposed designation of Clidastes propython Cope, 1869 as the type species. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 49:137–139.

External links

• Caitlín R. Kiernan's personal web site
  • Caitlín R. Kiernan's LiveJournal
  • Caitlín R. Kiernan's blog, mirrors the LiveJournal

• An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan at Bookslut (November 2004)
• An interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan: Author of 'Silk' and 'The Dreaming' (Nov. 14, 1999)
• Dreamweaver: An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan
• Pain, Wonder, and Really Old Things: An Interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan
• What Are You Afraid Of? An Interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (December 2005)
• Traveling Through Dreams: Sequential Tart interview with Caitlín R. Kiernan (February 1999)

1964 births | Living people | American bloggers | Horror writers | American novelists | Lesbian writers | Short story writers | Comics writers | Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people | Science fiction writers | Fantasy writers | Naturalized citizens of the United States | goth