Naomi Novik
Naomi Novik (born April 30, 1973) is an American author of speculative fiction. She is best known for the "Temeraire" series, an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and the standalone fantasy novels "Uprooted" and "Spinning Silver", which were inspired by Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, respectively. Novik has won many awards for her work, including the Alex, Audie, British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards. Film rights to her novels "Uprooted" and "A Deadly Education" have been purchased by Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. Early life. Novik grew up in Roslyn Heights on  Long Island. She is a second-generation American; her father's family were Lithuanian Jews, and her mother's family were Polish Catholics. Displaying an interest in reading at a young age, she read "The Lord of the Rings" at age six, and developed a love for Jane Austen soon afterward. She received a bachelor's degree in English literature at Brown University, and holds a master's degree in computer science from Columbia University. She participated in the design and development of the computer game "", until she discovered that she preferred writing to game design. Career. Novik's first  novel, "His Majesty's Dragon" ("Temeraire" in the UK), which commences the "Temeraire" series, is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars in a "Flintlock Fantasy" world in which dragons are abundant and are used in aerial combat. "His Majesty's Dragon" won the Compton Crook Award in 2007, and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. "Temeraire: In the Service of the King", an omnibus volume collecting the first three books of the series ("His Majesty's Dragon", "Throne of Jade", and "Black Powder War"), won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2007. In September  2006, Peter Jackson optioned the rights to the "Temeraire" series, intending to produce three or more live-action films, but the rights have since reverted to Novik. The "Temeraire" series has also been released in audiobook format. The first five audiobooks were released by Books on Tape, beginning in 2007, and read by Simon Vance. The sixth audiobook was released by Tantor Audio in September 2010, also read by Vance. In September 2007, Novik was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer for best new science fiction writer of 2006. In 2011, Novik wrote "Will Supervillains Be  on the Final?", a graphic novel about the next generation of high-flying costumed crusaders. Yishan Li illustrated the comic with "manga-styled art". In 2015, Novik published "Uprooted", a standalone novel "set in a fantasy world inspired by the Kingdom of Poland", which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to "Uprooted"; Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman signed on to produce the film through their production company, A Very Good Production. In 2016 , Novik published "Spinning Silver", a short story retelling the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, in the fantasy anthology "The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales". Two years later, she expanded the story into her second standalone novel, "Spinning Silver", which won the 2019 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the 2019 Alex Award, and the 2019 Audie Award for Fantasy. In 2020, Novik published "A Deadly Education", the first in a trilogy set in the Scholomance, a school of black magic from folklore. The main character, Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive  abilities. Universal Pictures purchased the film rights to the "Scholomance" series in advance, assigning Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman of Mandeville Films to develop and produce the films. Upon its release, "A Deadly Education" was criticized for a passage where the hairstyle known as dreadlocks is described as susceptible to an infestation of bug-like magical creatures. Novik later apologized for "evok[ing] a racist stereotype" about Afro-textured hair. She revised the passage for future reprints, and promised that the sequel novels will not be sent to reviewers and publishers before "revisions are fully complete and a final sensitivity read  has happened." Activism. Novik helped to organize and in 2007 was one of the three directors of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of fan-media including fan fiction, fan videos (vids), and real-person fiction. Novik was a co-founder of Archive of Our Own (AO3), a project of OTW that began in 2007 to create an online archive of fan fiction. When, at the 2019 Hugo Award ceremony, AO3 won the award for Best Related Work, Novik accepted the prize on behalf of all AO3's creators and readers. Personal  life. Novik is married to the entrepreneur and writer Charles Ardai. They live in Manhattan. They have one child, a daughter named Evidence Novik Ardai, who was born in 2010. Awards and nominations. Novik has won the British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards, and received nominations for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. She has also received the following accolades: