# Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard (born November 10, 1982) is a French-American speculative fiction writer.

## Writing

De Bodard published her first short story in 2006. In 2007, she was a winner of Writers of the Future, and in 2009 was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She has been published in Interzone, Hub Magazine, Black Static, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, Apex Magazine, among others.
She won the 2012 Nebula Award and Locus Award for Best Short Story for her short story "Immersion". She also won the 2013 Nebula Award for "The Waiting Stars". Her short story "The Shipmaker" won the 2010 British Science Fiction Award for Best Short Fiction. Her Xuya Universe novella The Tea Master and the Detective won the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 2019 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and was nominated for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
Her novelette "The Jaguar House, in Shadow" was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. Her short story "Shipbirth" was also nominated for the Nebula. Her novella On a Red Station, Drifting, released by Immersion Press in December 2012, was a finalist for the Nebula and Hugo. The science fiction work chronicles the conflict between two members of an extended Vietnamese family on a space station ruled by an AI, and is part of Bodard's Asian-dominated alternate-history series.
Bodard's short story collection Scattered Among Strange Worlds was released in July, 2012. The collection features two science fiction stories entitled "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" and "Exodus Tides". Her short story "The Dust Queen" was published in the science fiction anthology Reach for Infinity in 2014.
Her novel The House of Shattered Wings, set in a devastated Paris ruled by fallen angels, was published by Gollancz/Roc in August 2015. It won the BSFA Award for Best Novel of 2015. Her story "Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" won the BSFA Award for Best Short Story of 2015, the first time a single author has ever won both fiction categories in the same year.
In 2024, she published Navigational Entanglements which has been included in the New Scientist's list of 'best new science fiction books of July 2024'.

## Themes

Many of her stories are set in alternate history worlds where Aztec or pre-communist Vietnamese cultures are dominant. In a 2018 interview with L'épaule d'Orion, she stated that "taste is largely underutilised sensorily in science-fiction... future worlds in SF have a tendency to be sanitised." In a 2021 interview with Locus, she stated that she tried to write "parent-child relationships, and very often a mother-daughter relationship, because that's a thing you don't often see, aside from the controlling mother and the estranged mother. You don't even often see characters with dead mothers – the mothers tend to just fade out."

## Personal life

De Bodard is of French and Vietnamese descent, born in the US, and grew up in Paris. French is her first language but she writes in English. A graduate of École Polytechnique, she works as a software engineer (as of 2024 in railway signalling), and is a member of the Written in Blood writers group. She is bisexual.

## Awards

| Year | Title | Award | Category | Result |
| 2008 | "Butterfly, Falling at Dawn" | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Nominated |
| 2009 | — | John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer | John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer | Nominated |
| 2010 | "The Shipmaker" | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Won |
| 2011 | "The Jaguar House, in Shadow" | Hugo Award | Novelette | Nominated |
| 2011 | "The Jaguar House, in Shadow" | Nebula Award | Short Story | Nominated |
| 2012 | D'obsidienne et de sang (Servant of the Underworld) | Grand prix de l'Imaginaire | Roman étranger ('Foreign novel') | Nominated |
| 2012 | "Shipbirth" | Nebula Award | Short Story | Nominated |
| 2013 | "Heaven Under Earth" | James Tiptree Jr. Award | James Tiptree Jr. Award | Honor List |
| 2013 | "Immersion" | Locus Award | Short Story | Won |
| 2013 | "Immersion" | Nebula Award | Short Story | Won |
| 2013 | "Immersion" | Hugo Award | Short Story | 2nd place |
| 2013 | "Immersion" | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Nominated |
| 2013 | "Immersion" | Theodore Sturgeon Award | Theodore Sturgeon Award | Nominated |
| 2013 | On a Red Station, Drifting | Hugo Award | Novella | 4th place |
| 2013 | On a Red Station, Drifting | Locus Award | Novella | 5th place |
| 2013 | On a Red Station, Drifting | Nebula Award | Novella | Nominated |
| 2013 | "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" | Locus Award | Short Story | 10th place |
| 2013 | "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" | Theodore Sturgeon Award | Theodore Sturgeon Award | Nominated |
| 2014 | "Separados por las aguas del Río Celeste" ("Scattered Along the River of Heaven") | Premio Ignotus | Mejor cuento extranjero ('Best Foreign Story') | 4th place |
| 2014 | "The Waiting Stars" | Hugo Award | Novelette | 3rd place |
| 2014 | "The Waiting Stars" | Nebula Award | Novelette | Won |
| 2014 | "The Waiting Stars" | Locus Award | Novelette | 4th place |
| 2015 | "Memorials" | Locus Award | Novelette | 5th place |
| 2015 | "The Breath of War" | Nebula Award | Short Story | Nominated |
| 2015 | "The Dust Queen" | Locus Award | Short Story | 4th place |
| 2015 | El ciclo de Xuya (The Xuya Cycle) | Premio Ignotus | Mejor antología ('Best Collected Work') | 5th place |
| 2015 | En una estación roja, a la deriva (On a Red Station, Drifting) | Premio Ignotus | Mejor cuento extranjero ('Best Foreign Story') | 5th place |
| 2015 | "Éparpillés le long des rivières du ciel" ("Scattered Along the River of Heaven") | Grand prix de l'Imaginaire | Nouvelle étrangère ('Foreign novella') | Longlisted |
| 2016 | The House of Shattered Wings | BSFA Award | Novel | Won |
| 2016 | The House of Shattered Wings | Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | 4th place |
| 2016 | The Citadel of Weeping Pearls | Locus Award | Novella | 4th place |
| 2016 | "Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Won |
| 2016 | "Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" | Locus Award | Short Story | 4th place |
| 2016 | "Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight" | Eugie Award | Eugie Award | Nominated |
| 2017 | "A Salvaging of Ghosts" | Locus Award | Short Story | 5th place |
| 2017 | "A Salvaging of Ghosts" | WSFA Small Press Award | WSFA Small Press Award | Nominated |
| 2017 | "Pearl" | Locus Award | Novelette | 2nd place |
| 2017 | "The Citadel of Weeping Pearls" | Canopus Award | Previously Published Short Fiction | Nominated |
| 2018 | "Tres tazas de aflicción a la luz de las estrellas" ("Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight") | Premio Ignotus | Mejor cuento extranjero ('Best Foreign Story') | Won |
| 2018 | "Children of Thorns, Children of Water" | Locus Award | Novelette | 2th place |
| 2018 | "Children of Thorns, Children of Water" | Hugo Award | Novelette | 5th place |
| 2018 | In the Vanishers' Palace | Lambda Literary Awards | Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror | Nominated |
| 2018 | The House of Binding Thorns | Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | 4th place |
| 2019 | The Tea Master and the Detective | British Fantasy Award | Novella | Won |
| 2019 | The Tea Master and the Detective | Nebula Award | Novella | Won |
| 2019 | The Tea Master and the Detective | Hugo Award | Novella | 2nd place |
| 2019 | The Tea Master and the Detective | Locus Award | Novella | 2nd place |
| 2019 | The Tea Master and the Detective | World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated |
| 2019 | On Motherhood and Erasure | BSFA Award | Non-Fiction | Won |
| 2020 | Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight | Locus Award | Collection | 3rd place |
| 2020 | Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight | British Fantasy Award | Collection | Nominated |
| 2020 | 形見 (Katami, "Memorials") | Seiun Award | Best Translated Short Story | Nominated |
| 2021 | Seven of Infinities | Locus Award | Novella | 7th place |
| 2021 | Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders | Locus Award | Novella | 10th place |
| 2021 | The Inaccessibility of Heaven | Ignyte Award | Short Fiction | Won |
| 2021 | The Inaccessibility of Heaven | Hugo Award | Novelette | Nominated |
| 2021 | The Inaccessibility of Heaven | Locus Award | Novelette | 3rd place |
| 2021 | "In the Lands of the Spill" | Locus Award | Short Story | 9th place |
| 2022 | Fireheart Tiger | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Won |
| 2022 | Fireheart Tiger | Locus Award | Novella | 3rd place |
| 2022 | Fireheart Tiger | Hugo Award | Novella | 6th place |
| 2022 | Fireheart Tiger | Nebula Award | Novella | Nominated |
| 2022 | Fireheart Tiger | Ignyte Award | Novella | Nominated |
| 2022 | "Mulberry and Owl" | Locus Award | Novelette | 3rd place |
| 2023 | The Red Scholar's Wake | Arthur C. Clarke Award | Arthur C. Clarke Award | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | The Red Scholar's Wake | BSFA Award | Novel | Nominated |
| 2023 | The Red Scholar's Wake | Locus Award | SF Novel | 4th place |
| 2023 | Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances | BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Won |
| 2023 | Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances | Locus Award | Novella | 5th place |
| 2024 | A Fire Born of Exile | Locus Award | Novel | 7th place (tied) |
| 2024 | The Universe of Xuya | Hugo Award | Series | 5th place |
| 2024 | "The Mausoleum's Children" | Hugo Award | Short Story | 3rd place |
| 2024 | "The Mausoleum's Children" | Locus Award | Short Story | 7th place |