A.M. Dellamonica

Alyxandra Margaret (Alyx) Dellamonica was born on February 25, 1968, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A creative person from her earliest years, as a child and a young woman, Dellamonica did a great deal of work in local and community theater before she embarked on her writing career in earnest. She published her first short story, "Lucre's Egg" in the Autumn 1994 issue of Crank! Magazine. in 1995 she attended the storied Clarion West science fiction writers workshop in Seattle, WA, and began writing numerous short stories. (Some were mysteries written under the name 'Ashley Craft'.) She has published over 40 stories to date in numerous periodicals and anthologies, along with numerous essays and book reviews.

In 2009 Dellamonica published her first novel: Indigo Springs, an intense fantasy chronicling the fallout from the introduction of magical substance first into a small Oregon town, and then into the larger world. The novel won the 2010 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. It was followed by a sequel, Blue Magic, in 2012. In 2014 Dellamonica embarked on a new series, which takes place on the island-dotted oceanic world of Stormwrack. The three novels in the series, Child of A Hidden Sea(2014), A Daughter of No Nation(2015), and The Nature of A Pirate(2016) tell the story of Sophie Hansa, a marine biologist from San Francisco who is swept into Stormwrack and its complicated variety of cultures and nations and the political and religious intrigues that drive them. The middle work won the 2016 Prix Aurora for Best English Novel. She also wrote several stories set in the same universe, "Among The Silvering Herd" (2012), "The Ugly Woman of Castello di Putti" (2014), and "The Glass Galago" (2016).

Under the pseudonym L.X. Beckett, Dellamonica has written a near-future novel Gamechanger, set on an Earth emerging from a long period of environmental collapse and political unrest into a brighter, virtual reality-driven collective future (the "Bounceback"). Gamechanger was a finalist for the 2020 Sunburst Award, and was followed by a sequel, Dealbreaker, in 2021. Beckett has also published two novellas set in the Bounceback universe: "Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling" (2018), a finalist for the 2019 Theodore Sturgeon Award for Best Short Science Fiction; and "The Immolation of Kev Magee" (2020). Most recently as Beckett, she has written the 2022 story "Salvage Blossom".

Dellamonica had a James Bond story, "Through Your Eyes Only", published in the anthology Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond(ChiZine, November 2015). She was also the co-editor of Heiresses of Russ 2016: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction. She has published a number of other works of short fiction, including "A Key to the Illuminated Heretic" (2005), which was nominated for the 2005 Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Short Form; "The Town on Blighted Sea" (2007); "The Color of Paradox" (2014); "The Boy Who Would Not be Enchanted" (2016); and (as Beckett) "The HazMat Sisters" (2021), nominated for the 2022 Asimov's Readers Award for Best Novelette. As Beckett, she also writes poetry: her 2021 poem "What The Time Travellers Saw" was nominated for the 2022 Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem.

Dellamonica is married to author Kelly Robson, and lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Kelly Ann Robson (1967-) was first inspired to write science fiction in 1983 when, as a young girl she picked up a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction with a story by Connie Willis. She attended the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, where, in January 1988, she first met her future wife and fellow author Alyx Dellamonica. The two were married in 2003 and live in Toronto.

Robson graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.A. in English in 1991. She obtained a Certificate in Multimedia Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2001. Upon graduation from the U of Alberta, Robson held several different jobs, including being a writer, editor, graphic artist, and web designer for ESSA Technologies, a Vancouver-based ecological sciences consulting firm. From 2008-2012 she was a freelance columnist and wine authority for the women's magazine Chatelaine.

In 2015 Robson published a flurry of work, beginning with the short story "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill" in the February 2015 issue of Clarkesworld. The story is a disturbing commentary on the ongoing epidemic of violence and murder against women along Highway 16 in Alberta and British Columbia. It was included in the Night Shade Press anthology In The Shadow of the Towers: Speculative Fiction in a Post 9/11 World, and was nominated for the 2016 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Released by Tor.com in June 2015 was Robson's novella Water of Versailles, an historical fantasy set in 1738 at the French court of Louis XV. It was nominated for a 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and won the 2016 Prix Aurora for Best English Short Fiction. In the August 2015 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, Robson published the bleak dystopian tale "Two-Year Man", bringing her creative journey that began when she first discovered Asimov's in 1983, full circle. In 2021, Subterranean Press published a collection of Robson's short fiction, entitled Alias Space and Other Stories, which won the 2022 Aurora Award for Best Related Work-English. Among her most recent work is the story "In a Cabin, In a Wood", published in Jonathan Strahan's 2023 anthology The Book of Witches.

Her well-received time travel novella Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach was published by Tor.com in March 2018, was nominated for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and won the 2019 Prix Aurora for Best Short Fiction - English. Her 2017 story "We Who Live In The Heart" was nominated for the 2018 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Robson's most recent published work is the novella High Times in the Low Parliament, released by Tor.com in August 2022 and a nominee for both the 2023 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 2023 Locus Poll Award for Best Novella.

In addition to her science fiction work, Robson has also published a noir story, "Good For Grapes", which was included in the anthology The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir (March 2015). Her James Bond story "The Gladiator Lie" was published in the anthology Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond (ChiZine, November 2015). Robson's horror novella "A Human Stain" was released as a Tor.com original in January 2017, and won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.

Robson was nominated for the 2017 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.