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Born to life in 1947 (France), and to science-fiction in 1964. Teaches French Literature and Creative Writing on and off at various universities in Quebec (since immigration, in 1973). “Fulltime writer” since 1990, (despite PhD. in Creative Writing, 1987), i.e. translator, SF convention organizer, literary editor (Solaris magazine), essayist. Still managed to publish fifteen novels and eight short stories collections in French, two in English (Slow Engines of Time, Blood Out of A Stone). Five novels translated in English, (The Silent City, In the Mothers' Land aka The Maerlande Chronicles—1993 Philip K. Dick’ s Special Award and a finalist of the 1993 Tiptree Award —Reluctant Voyagers, Dreams of the Sea (Tyranaël I, 2003), A Game of Perfection (Tyranaël 2, 2005) ; other translations in German. The more recent novels, Reine de Mémoire (2005-2007, five books), received four major awards in Quebec. Numerous short stories published in French and English. Also writes for children and YA. More than thirty awards in France, Canada, Quebec and the States, among which the Grand prix de la SF française ((1982), le Grand Prix de la SF et du fantastique québécois (three times), le Philip K. Dick Special Award, le Prix du Conseil québécois de la Femme en littérature (1998, a one-time literary award given by the Quebecois Council for Women’s Affairs on its twentieth anniversary), and seven Aurora awards (last one for Reine de Mémoire 5, 2007).

More information can be found at her SFWA author page or, in French, her website.


Élisabeth Vonarburg in our archives
Current Issue
24 Mar 2025

The winner is the one with the most living wasps
Every insect was a chalk outline of agony / defined, evaluated, ranked / by how much it hurt
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Reprise by Samantha Lane Murphy, read by Emmie Christie. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
Black speculative poetry works this way too. It’s text that is flexible and immediate. It’s a safe space to explore Afrocentric text rooted in story, song, dance, rhythm that natural flows from my intrinsic self. It’s text that has a lot of hurt, as in pain, and a lot of healing—an acceptance of self, black is beauty, despite what the slave trade, colonialism, racism, social injustice might tell us.
It’s not that I never read realistic fiction and not that I don’t like it. It’s just that sometimes I don’t get it. I know realistic fiction, speculative fiction, and genre fiction are just terms we made up to sell more narrative, but I’m skeptical of how the expectations and norms of realism lurk, largely uninterrogated or even fully articulated, in the way readers, editors, and publishers interact with work that purports to depict quote unquote real life.  Most broadly defined, realistic stories depict the quotidian and accurately reproduce the daily events, characters, and settings of the world we live
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