Jo Walton

**Jo Walton** (born December 1, 1964) is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She has won many awards.

## Background

Walton was born in Aberdare, in the Cynon Valley of Wales. She went to Park School in Aberdare, then Aberdare Girls' Grammar School. She lived for a year in Cardiff and went to Howell's School Llandaff. She finished her education at Oswestry School in Shropshire, and at the University of Lancaster. She lived in London for two years. Then she lived in Lancaster until 1997. She moved to Swansea, where she lived until moving to Canada in 2002.

Walton speaks Welsh.

## Writing career

Walton has been writing since she was 13. Her first novel was published in 2000.  Before that, she had been published in a number of role-playing game publications, such as _Pyramid_. She often wrote with her husband at the time, Ken Walton. Walton was also active in online science fiction fandom, especially in the Usenet groups _rec.arts.sf.written_ and _rec.arts.sf.fandom_. Her poem "The Lurkers Support Me in E-Mail" is widely quoted on it and in other online arguments, often without her name attached.

Her first three novels, _The King's Peace_ (2000), _The King's Name_ (2001), and _The Prize in the Game_ (2002) were all fantasy. They happen in a world  based on Arthurian Britain and the Táin Bó Cúailnge's Ireland. Her next novel, _Tooth and Claw_ (2003) was about dragons, but in the style of Anthony Trollope.

_Farthing_ was her first science fiction novel. It was a mystery and an alternate history in which the United Kingdom made peace with Adolf Hitler before the United States entered World War II. It was nominated for a Nebula Award, a Quill Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. A sequel, _Ha'penny_, was published in October 2007 by Tor Books, with the final book in the trilogy, _Half a Crown,_ published in September 2008. _Ha'penny_ won the 2008 Prometheus Award (jointly with Harry Turtledove's novel _The Gladiator_) and has been nominated for the Lambda Literary Award.

In April 2007, Howard V. Hendrix stated that professional writers should never release their writings online for free. He claimed doing this made the writer a scab. Walton responded to this by declaring 23 April as International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. Writers who disagreed with Hendrix could release their stories online all at once. In 2008 Walton celebrated this day by posting several chapters of an unfinished sequel to _Tooth and Claw_ called _Those Who Favor Fire._

In 2008, Walton began writing a column for Tor.com, mostly reviews of older books.

## Personal life

Walton moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, after her first novel was published. She is married to Dr. Emmet A. O'Brien. She has one child. Her son, Alexander, was born in 1990.

### Novels

- _Tooth and Claw_ (November 2003, Tor Books, ) Won the World Fantasy Award.
- _Lifelode_ (February 2009, NESFA Press, )
- _Among Others_ (January 2011, Tor Books), ; Nebula Award for Best Novel 2011, Hugo Award for Best Novel 2012, World Fantasy Award nominee
- _My Real Children_ (May 2014, Tor Books), ; Tiptree Award 2014, World Fantasy Award nominee, Aurora Award nominee
- _Lent_ (May 2019, Tor Books),

- Sulien series
- _The King's Name_ (December 2001, Tor Books, )
- _The Prize in the Game_ (December 2002, Tor Books, )
- Small Change trilogy
- _Farthing_ (August 2006, Tor Books, )
- _Ha'penny_ (October 2007, Tor Books, )
- _Half a Crown_ (August 2008, Tor Books, )
- Thessaly trilogy
- _The Just City_ (January 2015, Tor Books),
- _The Philosopher Kings_ (June 2015, Tor Books),
- _Necessity_ (July 2016, Tor Books)

### Other works

- _GURPS Celtic Myth (with Ken Walton)_ (1995, addition to a roleplaying game)
- _Muses and Lurkers_ (2001, poetry chapbook, edited by Eleanor Evans)
- _Realms of Sorcery (with Ken Walton)_ (2002, addition to a roleplaying game)
- _Sybils and Spaceships_, poetry chapbook (2009, NESFA Press)
- _What Makes This Book So Great,_  collected essays and book reviews (2014, Tor Books) . Review by Paul Di Filippo
- _Starlings_, short story and poetry collection (2018, Tachyon Publications)
- _An Informal History of the Hugos_ collected essays and book reviews (2018, Tor Books)

### Short Stories

- "Sleeper" (2014, Tor.com)
- "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" (2009, Tor.com)
- "The Jump Rope Rhyme" (2017, Tor.com)
- "A Burden Shared" (2017, Tor.com)

### Essays

- "Story behind "Ha'Penny" by Jo Walton" (2013), from "Story Behind the Book : Volume 1"

### Writing about Walton's work

- _The King's Peace_

## Awards

|Year|Category|Nominated work|Result|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||2002||John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer|||
||2004||_World Fantasy Award_|_Tooth and Claw_||
||2008||Prometheus Award|_Ha'penny_||
||2010||Mythopoeic Award|_Lifelode_||
||2011||Nebula Award for Best Novel,|_Among Others_||
||2012||Hugo Award for Best Novel,|_Among Others_||

Among Others is one of only seven novels to have been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and World Fantasy Award.

## Other websites

- Jo Walton's LiveJournal (deleted 10 April 2017; see Walton's note at http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/i-would-have-stayed-on-livejournal-forever/)
- Jo Walton's home page
- Jo Walton's page at Tor.com, with links to her reviews
- Searchable Index of Jo Walton's Tor.com posts

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Jo Walton
- **image**: Jo Walton.jpg
- **caption**: Author Jo Walton at a book signing event
- **birth place**: Aberdare, Wales, UK
- **occupation**: Writer
- **nationality**: Welsh people, Welsh and Canadians, Canadian
- **genre**: Fantasy/Science fiction
- **spouse**: Emmet A. O'Brien
- **children**: 1