Esther Mona Friesner-Stutzman ( Friesner; born July 16, 1951) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is also a poet and playwright. She is best known for her humorous style of writing, both in the titles and the works themselves. This humor allows her to discuss with broader audiences issues like gender equality and social justice.
Life Friesner attended the Hunter College High School, a public magnet high school in New York City, as well as Vassar College. At Vassar, she completed A.B.s in both Spanish and Drama. While at Vassar, she became friendly with Paula Volsky and Jane Bishop. Together they wrote at least one film script for student production, "Lavinia: a Girl of the Street", which demonstrated Esther's trademark tongue-in-cheek style. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish and was a college Spanish professor at Yale University before becoming a writer. She currently resides with her husband in Connecticut.
Career
During her early career as a writer, Friesner penned an advice column entitled "Ask Auntie Esther" for Pulphouse Magazine. Her first short story, "The Stuff of Heroes" was sold in 1982.
In addition to short stories, Friesner has published a number of novels and is a prolific editor of anthologies. "Thunderbolt," a short story in Random House's Young Warriors anthology lead to creation of her recent books Nobody's Princess, which takes the Greek legend of Helen of Sparta and gives it a new beginning, and its sequel, Nobody's Prize.
Alien Pregnant By Elvis was her first effort as an anthology editor as part of a collection of tabloid science fiction for DAW books in conjunction with Martin H. Greenberg. She also collaborated with Greenberg on an Amazonian comedy anthology for Baen Books entitled Chicks In Chainmail and a vampire anthology for Donald I Fine, Inc. called Blood Muse.
She is a frequent guest of honor at science fiction conventions, having appeared at Bubonicon, Arisia, Boskone, Baycon and Albacon in the 1990s and in the 21st century. Her story "Love's Eldritch Ichor" was featured at one of these conventions, the World Fantasy convention, in 1990.
Friesner is credited as one of the founders of a parody movement in the 1980s called cyberprep.
Awards Friesner was named Outstanding New Fantasy Writer by Romantic Times in 1986. She won the Skylark Award in 1994. She has been nominated a number of times for the Hugo and Nebula awards, winning the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1995 and 1996 for, respectively, "Death and the Librarian" and "A Birthday". "A Birthday" was additionally a Hugo Award finalist in 1996. Her short story, "All Vows" was also a finalist for the Nebula in 1994 and took second place in Asimov's SF Magazine Readers' Poll in 1993.
Friesner's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, Warchild, also made the USA TODAY bestseller list.
Nebula Awards and Nominations
Source:
1993- “All Vows”, published by Asimov’s Magazine, Nominated for Best Short Story 1995- “Jesus at the Bat” published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nominated for Best Novelette 1995 1995- “Death and the Librarian” published by Asimov’s Magazine, Winner, Best Short story 1996- “A Birthday” published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winner, Best Short Story 1999- “How to Make Unicorn Pie” published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nominated for Best Novelette 2001- Toastmaster for World Science Fiction Convention 2001 2006- “Helen Remembers the Stork Club”, published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nominated for Best Short Story of 2006
Locus Awards
Source:
Locus Awards — for SF/F/H works, polled by readers of Locus Magazine (10 nominations)
2006: “The Fraud” (Asimov's Mar 2005) — novelette — 24th place 2006: “Last Man Standing” (F&SF Jan 2005) — novelette — 17th place 2006: “Helen Remembers the Stork Club” (F&SF Oct/Nov 2005) — short story — 15th place 2000: “How to Make Unicorn Pie” (F&SF Jan 1999) — novelette — 14th place 1999: “Brown Dust” (Starlight 2) — novelette — 16th place 1996: “A Birthday” (F&SF Aug 1995) — short story — 4th place 1996: Chicks in Chainmail (Baen) — anthology — 19th place 1993: “All Vows” (Asimov's Nov 1992) — short story — 17th place 1989: Druid's Blood (NAL Signet) — fantasy novel — 13th place 1987: New York by Knight (Signet) — fantasy novel — 19th place
Other Awards and Nominations
Source:
James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award — for SF/F that explores and expands the roles of women and men, juried (1 nomination) 1999: “In the Realms of Dragons” (Asimov's Feb 1998) — long list Asimov's Reader Poll — for stories, poems, and art published by Asimov's, polled by readers (4 nominations) 2001: “The Shunned Trailer” (Asimov's Feb 2000) — short story — 10th place 1995: “Death and the Librarian” (Asimov's Dec 1994) — short story — 2nd place 1994: “'White!' Said Fred” (Asimov's Oct 1993) — short story — 3rd place (tie) 1993: “All Vows” (Asimov's Nov 1992) — short story — 2nd place ·Gaylactic Spectrum Awards — for SF/F/H on GLBT themes, voted by members of Gaylactic Network (1 nomination) 2000: “Chanoyu” (Asimov's Mar 1999) — short fiction — nomination HOMer Awards — for SF/F works, voted by members of SF/F forum on CompuServe (2 nominations) 2000: “Chanoyu” (Asimov's Mar 1999) — novelette — nomination 2000: “How to Make Unicorn Pie” (F&SF Jan 1999) — novelette — nomination
Bibliography
Novels Harlot's Ruse (1986) The Silver Mountain (1986) Druid's Blood (1988) Yesterday We Saw Mermaids (1992) Split Heirs (1993) with Lawrence Watt-Evans Wishing Season (1993) The Sherwood Game (1995) Child of the Eagle: A Myth of Rome (1996) Playing with Fire (1997) Knock on Wood (2000) E.Godz (2003) with Robert Asprin Temping Fate (2006) Threads and Flames (2010)
Becca of Wiserways (Psalms) series The Psalms Of Herod (1996) The Sword Of Mary (1996)
Chronicles of the Twelve Kingdoms series Mustapha and His Wise Dog (1985) Spells of Mortal Weaving (1986) The Witchwood Cradle (1987) The Water King's Laughter (1989)
Demons series Here Be Demons (1988) Demon Blues (1989) Hooray For Hellywood (1990)
Gnome Man's Land series Gnome Man's Land (1991) Harpy High (1991) Unicorn U (1992)
Majyk series Majyk by Accident (1993) Majyk by Hook Or Crook (1994) Majyk by Design (1995)
Men in Black novelizations Men in Black II (2002)
New York by Knight series New York by Knight (1986) Elf Defense (1988) Sphynxes Wild (1989)
Princesses of Myth series
Helen of Troy Nobody's Princess (2007) Nobody's Prize (2008)
Nefertiti Sphinx's Princess (2009) Sphinx's Queen (2010)
Himiko Spirit's Princess (2012) Spirit's Chosen (2013)
Maeve Deception's Princess (2014) Deception's Pawn (2015)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch #11 Prisoner of Cabin 13 #22 Witchopoly (1999)
Star Trek universe Warchild (1994), #7 in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series To Storm Heaven (1997) #46 in Star Trek: The Next Generation numbered series
Short fiction Collections It's Been Fun (1991) Up The Wall & Other Tales of King Arthur and His Knights (2000) Death and the Librarian and Other Stories (2002)
Series Cthulhu Mythos series: "Love's Eldritch Ichor" (1990) Riverworld series: "Legends" (1993) Zoli of the Brazen Shield series: "Cross CHILDREN Walk" (1999) aka "Cross Children Walk" "Troll by Jury" (2000)
StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted.