Photo: Yanmega2 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Mary Robinette Kowal is a rare double talent, and that is what draws me to her. Before she became a four-time Hugo winner and Nebula and Locus laureate, she worked as a puppeteer on productions including Jim Henson's and LazyTown, learning to convey emotion through movement and timing. I am convinced that hands-on craft feeds her fiction: her prose has a tactile, animated quality, as if she still thinks about how a character physically moves. Add her tenure leading the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and you get an artist who both creates at the highest level and stewards her community. I deeply respect that combination.
Overview
Mary Robinette Kowal (née Harrison; born February 8, 1969) is an American author, translator, art director, and puppeteer. As an author, she is a four-time Hugo Award winner, a Nebula Award and Locus Award winner, and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2019-2021. She has worked on puppetry for shows including Jim Henson Productions and the children's show LazyTown.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Mary Robinette Kowal
- Name (Japanese)
- メアリ・ロビネット・コワル
- Reading
- めあり・ろびねっと・こわる
- Born
- February 8, 1969 (age 57)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aquarius / Rooster
- Origin
- Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- writer / puppeteer / novelist / science fiction writer / chairperson
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- William G. Enloe High School
- University
- East Carolina University
Awards & achievements
- 2008 Astounding Award for Best New Writer
- 2011 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
- 2013 Hugo Award for Best Related Work
- 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
- 2019 Nebula Award for Best Novel
- 2018 Sidewise Award for Alternate History
- 2019 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
- 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Evil Robot Monkey | — |
6. Links
Writer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.