Kritzer, Naomi
Entry updated 6 November 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1973- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Faust's SASE" in Scavenger's Newsletter for September 1999; during her early career she published mostly fantasy, including the Eliana's Song sequence beginning with the Young Adult Fires of the Faithful (2002), set in a fantasy land oppressed by Religious fundamentalism, but saved by the versatile young protagonist; and the Dead Rivers sequence beginning with Freedom's Gate (2004), which expands on similar material, though the two series are not formally linked.
Kritzer has published two collections: Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories (coll 2011 ebook), which is primarily fantasy; and Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories (2017), which assembles more varied material, including "Cat Pictures Please" (January 2015 Clarkesworld), a tale of a well-meaning emergent AI which won the 2016 Hugo award and Locus Award for best short story. The same benevolent AI returns at novel length in the Young Adult sf thrillers Catfishing on CatNet (2019), which won a Lodestar Award, and Chaos on CatNet (2021). The brief fantasy "Little Free Library" (8 April 2020 Tor.com) won a further Locus Award for best short story.
Especially in short forms, Kritzer's work is genial but subtly sharp-tongued, and tends to focus on how to remain human, or recognizable, in a changing world. [JC]
Naomi Kritzer
born North Carolina: 23 April 1973
works
series
Eliana's Song
- Fires of the Faithful (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2002) [Eliana's Song: pb/Franco Accornero]
- Turning the Storm (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2003) [Eliana's Song: pb/Franco Accornero]
Dead Rivers
- Freedom's Gate (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2004) [Dead Rivers: pb/Stephen Youll]
- Freedom's Apprentice (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2005) [Dead Rivers: pb/Stephen Youll]
- Freedom's Sisters (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2006) [Dead Rivers: pb/Stephen Youll]
CatNet
- Catfishing on CatNet (New York: Tor Teen, 2019) [CatNet: hb/]
- Chaos on CatNet (New York: Tor Teen, 2021) [CatNet: hb/]
individual titles
- Liberty's Daughter (Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2023) [fixup: pb/Leon Tukker]
collections
- Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories (no place given: Amazon Digital Services, 2011) [coll: ebook: na/]
- Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories (Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2017) [coll: pb/Patrick Swenson]
links
previous versions of this entry