Yoon Ha Lee

In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.

Yoon Ha Lee
Born	(1979-01-26) January 26, 1979 Houston, Texas
Occupation	writer
Nationality	American
Genre	Science fiction, fantasy
Notable works	Conservation of Shadows (short story collection), Ninefox Gambit (novel)
Website
yoonhalee.com

Yoon Ha Lee (born January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Life

When he was young, Lee's Korean American family lived in both Texas and South Korea, where he attended high school at Seoul Foreign School, an English-language international school. He went to college at Cornell University, majoring in mathematics, and earned a master's degree in secondary mathematics education at Stanford University. He has worked as an analyst for an energy market intelligence company, done web design, and taught mathematics.

Lee is a trans man and describes himself as queer. He lives in Louisiana with his husband and daughter.

Career

Since his first sale in 1999, Lee has published short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed magazine and elsewhere. Three of his stories have been reprinted in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies. Dozois wrote that Lee is "one of those helping to move science fiction into the twenty-first century".

In 2012, Lee wrote Winterstrike, a browser-based text adventure game, for Failbetter Games.

Aliette de Bodard wrote the introduction for Conservation of Shadows and has twice recommended one of Lee's stories in her best of year round-ups: she selected "Ghostweight" as a favorite of 2011 and "The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars" was chosen in her 2013 eligibility and recommendations post as "the one that most blew me away this year". "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" and "Ghostweight" were both nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and Locus Award and were both reprinted in two "Year's Best" anthologies. "The Pirate Captain's Daughter" was nominated for the WSFA Small Press Award.

His debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel. It was also nominated for the 2016 Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel and the 2017 Clarke award. Revenant Gun, the third novel in the Machineries of Empire series, was nominated for a 2019 Hugo Award.

Dragon Pearl, released on January 15, 2019, is a middle grade novel published by Disney Hyperion under the "Rick Riordan Presents" publishing imprint. Dragon Pearl won the 2020 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book and the 2020 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature, was a finalist for the 2020 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Andre Norton Award.

Bibliography

Novels

Machineries of Empire trilogy

1. Ninefox Gambit, Solaris, 14 June 2016, ISBN 978-1781084496
2. Raven Stratagem, Solaris, 13 June 2017, ISBN 978-1781085370
3. Revenant Gun, Solaris, 12 June 2018, ISBN 978-1781086070

Thousand Worlds series

• Dragon Pearl, Disney/Hyperion, 15 January 2019, ISBN 978-1368013352 (young adult)
• Tiger Honor, Disney/Hyperion, 4 January 2022, ISBN 978-1368055543 (young adult)

Other novels

• Phoenix Extravagant, Solaris, 15 October 2020, ISBN 978-1-78618-317-0

Short fiction

Collections

• Conservation of Shadows, Prime Books, 16 April 2013, ISBN 978-1-60701-387-7
• Hexarchate Stories, Solaris, 25 June 2019, ISBN 978-1781085646

Stories

Machineries of Empire prequels

Title	Year	First published
"The Chameleon's Gloves"	2017	Cosmic Powers ed. John Joseph Adams, Saga Press
"Extracurricular Activities"	2017	Tor.com
"Calendrical Rot"	2016	An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables ed. R. B. Lemberg, Stone Bird Press
"Gamer's End"	2015	Press Start to Play ed. John Joseph Adams and Daniel H. Wilson, Vintage Books
"The Battle of Candle Arc"	2012	Clarkesworld Magazine, issue 73
"The Robot's Math Lessons"	undated	self-published on Yoon Ha Lee's website
"How the Andan Court"	undated	self-published on Yoon Ha Lee's website
Assorted flash fiction	various	available on Dreamwidth

Other short fiction

• "Bonsai Starships" - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #349 (February 2022)
• "Lucky Day" - Her Magical Pet: Benefit F/F Story Collection (October 2020)
• Beyond the Dragon's Gate, A Tor.com Original, 20 May 2020, ISBN 978-1250621603
• "Foxfire, Foxfire" - Beneath Ceaseless Skies#194 (March, 2016)
• "The Cold Inequalities" – Meeting Infinity (December 2015)
• "Interlingua" – Uncanny Magazine (December 2015)
• "Variations on an Apple" – "Tor.com" (October 2015)
• "The Old Road" – "Not One of Us" #54 (October 2015)
• "Snakes" – "Clarkesworld Magazine" (July 2015)
• "Apocalypse Foxes" – "Daily Science Fiction" (June 2015)
• "Two to Leave" – "Beneath Ceaseless Skies" (May 2015)
• "The Graphology of Hemorrhage" – Operation Arcana (March 2015)
• "The Queen's Aviary" – Daily Science Fiction (January 2015)
• "Distinguishing Characteristics" – Dangerous Games (December 2014)
• "Always the Harvest" – Upgraded (September 2014)
• "Warhosts" – War Stories (September 2014)
• "The Contemporary Foxwife" – Clarkesworld Magazine #94 (July 2014). An audio version read by Kate Baker is also available.
• "Combustion Hour" – Tor.com (June 2014)
• "The Bonedrake's Penance" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #143 (March 2014)
• "Wine" – Clarkesworld Magazine #88 (January 2014). An audio version read by Kate Baker is also available.
• "The Coin of Heart's Desire" – Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales (October 2013)
• "The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars" – Lightspeed #39 (August 2013)
• "Iseul's Lexicon" – Conservation of Shadows (April 2013)
• "Effigy Nights" – Clarkesworld Magazine #76 (January 2013). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Kate Baker is also available.
• "The Book of Locked Doors" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #91 (March 2012). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version is also available.
• "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" – Tor.com (August 2011). Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best SF 17 and by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden for Twenty-First Century Science Fiction, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "Conservation of Shadows" – Clarkesworld Magazine #59 (August 2011). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Kate Baker is also available.
• "Ghostweight" – Clarkesworld Magazine #52 (January 2011).
• "The Winged City" – Giganotosaurus #2 (December 2010)
• "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" – Lightspeed #4 (September 2010). Selected by Gardner Dozois for The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "The Territorialist" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #47 (July 2010)
• "Between Two Dragons" – Clarkesworld Magazine #43 (April 2010). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Kate Baker is also available.
• "The Pirate Captain's Daughter" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #27 (October 2009). An audio version is also available.
• "Dragon Logic" – Japanese Dreams: Fantasies, Fictions & Fairytales (August 2009)
• "The Bones of Giants" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 117, no 1&2 (August 2009). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "Swanwatch" – Federations (April 2009). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "The Unstrung Zither" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 116, no 3 (March 2009). Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best SF 15, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "The Fourth Horseman" – Electric Velocipede #17/18 (Spring 2009)
• "Architectural Constants" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #2 (October 2008). An audio version is also available.
• "Blue Ink" – Clarkesworld Magazine #23 (August 2008). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Cat Rambo is also available.
• "Behind the Mirror" – Coyote Wild, vol 1, no 1 (Winter 2007)
• "Notes on the Necromantic Symphony" – Farrago's Wainscot Part IV (October 2007)
• "The Inferno" – Behind the Wainscot: The Five Senses (September 2007)
• "The Shadow Postulates" – Helix SF #5 (July 2007). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "Screamers" – Ideomancer, vol 6, no 2 (June 2007)
• "Hopscotch" – Twenty Epics (August 2006)
• "Unstringing the Bow" – Ideomancer, vol 5, no 2 (June 2006)
• "So that Her High-Born Kinsmen Came" – Sybil's Garage #3 (March 2006)
• "Nine Tails, Hundred Hearts" – Fantasy Magazine #2 (January 2006)
• "The Sun's Kiss" – Ideomancer, vol 4, no 3 (September 2005)
• "Words Written in Fire" – Shadows of Saturn #3 (August 2005)
• "Moon, Paper, Scissors" – Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #16 (July 2005)
• "Eating Hearts" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 108, no 6 (June 2005). Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best Fantasy 6 and Sean Wallace for Best New Fantasy, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Ann Leckie is available at Podcastle
• "The Third Song" – Lenox Avenue #4 (January 2005)
• "The Black Abacus" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 102, no 6 (June 2002). Selected by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber for Science Fiction: The Best of 2002, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "Counting the Shapes" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 100, no 6 (June 2001). Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
• "Alas, Lirette" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 100, no 1 (Jan 2001)
• "Echoes Down an Endless Hall" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 98, no 4 (April 2000)
• "The Hundredth Question" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 96, no 2 (February 1999)

External links

• Yoon Ha Lee at Library of Congress, with 5 library catalog records
• Yoon Ha Lee at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Interview at Clarkesworld, May 2013
• Review of Conservation of Shadows at Strange Horizons
• Review of Ninefox Gambit by N.K. Jemisin at NY Times
• Short stories available free online