Cameron Reed is an American science fiction author whose work, while sparse, has met with considerable acclaim. Reed is transgender and uses she/her and they/them pronouns.
Work Reed's first novel (published under her former name, Raphael Carter) is the postcyberpunk The Fortunate Fall, published in 1996. Described as "a superb example of speculative fiction,", the novel appeared on the Locus recommended reading list, and in the Locus Award it was 4th among first novels, after two tied winners. Reed was consequently nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1997 and 1998. It was out of print for decades before being re-released under her current name in 2024.
Reed's short story "'Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation' by K.N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" was shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Award and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1998. This made Reed the first non-female author to be the sole winner of the Tiptree (Elizabeth Hand in 1995 had been a co-winner with Theodore Roszak. At the time of winning the award, Reed self-identified "as neither female nor male". She also wrote the "Androgyny Rarely Asked Questions" and "The Murk Manual: How to Understand Medical Writing on Intersex".
Between May 1998 and April 2002, Reed maintained the Honeyguide Web Log, described as an "eclectic weekly list of links emphasizing books, robotics, and the natural sciences.". This was the first site to be named a weblog after Jorn Barger's example, and Reed launched the first weblog directory at the Open Directory Project in November 1998. On her website she also wrote essays about gender that engaged with early online transgender, androgyne, neuter, and non-binary communities.
Reed's second novel, What We Are Seeking, also science fiction, was published by Tor Books in April 2026.
Personal life Reed identifies as a nonbinary trans woman. She moved from Phoenix, Arizona, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1995.
References
Further reading Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden: "Anatomy of a Sale: Raphael Carter's The Fortunate Fall to Tor Books." In The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Sourcebook, 2nd ed., ed. David Borcherding. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Press, 1996.
External links Raphael Carter's Usenet posts at Google Groups: 1993-5, 1996-8 and 1998-9
Judges' comments on the Congenital Agenesis... at Tiptree Award site Honeyguide Web Log at the Internet Archive Raphael Carter's photostream at Flickr Raphael Carter's contributions to the Wikimedia Commons