Kage Baker

Kage Baker (June 10, 1952[1] – January 31, 2010[2]) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer.

Kage Baker
Kage Baker in 2009
Born(1952-06-10)June 10, 1952
Hollywood, California, United States
DiedJanuary 31, 2010(2010-01-31) (aged 57)
Pismo Beach, California, United States
OccupationWriter
Period1997–2010
GenreScience fiction
Fantasy

Biography

Baker was born and raised in Hollywood, California, and lived in Pismo Beach later in life. Before becoming a professional writer she spent many years in theater, including teaching Elizabethan English as a second language.[3] Her unusual first name (pronounced like the word cage) is a combination of the names of her two grandmothers, Kate and Genevieve. Baker had Asperger syndrome.[4]

She is best known for her "Company" series of historical time travel science fiction. Her first stories were published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1997, and her first novel, In the Garden of Iden, by Hodder & Stoughton in the same year. Other notable works include Mendoza in Hollywood (novel, 2000) and "The Empress of Mars" (novella, 2003), which won the Theodore Sturgeon Award[5] and was nominated for a Hugo Award.

In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.[6]

In 2009, her short story "Caverns of Mystery" and her novel House of the Stag were both nominated for World Fantasy Awards, but neither piece won.[7]

In January 2010, it was reported that Baker was seriously ill with cancer.[8] She died from uterine cancer at approximately 1:00 a.m. on January 31, 2010, in Pismo Beach, California.[2] She was survived by five younger siblings, mostly located in southern and central California.

In 2010, Baker's The Women of Nell Gwynne's was nominated for a Hugo Award and a World Fantasy Award in the Best Novella categories.[9][10] On May 15, 2010, that work was awarded the 2009 Nebula Award in the Best Novella category.[11]

Baker left an unfinished novel, Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea, which has been completed by her sister Kathleen Bartholomew based on extensive notes left by Baker, and was published in 2012.[12]

Partial bibliography

Novels set in the Company universe

Short story collections set in the Company universe

Standalone novellas set in the Company universe

Novels set in the universe of The Anvil of the World
  • The Anvil of the World (2003)
  • The House of the Stag (2008) (Prequel to The Anvil of the World)
  • The Bird of the River (2010)

Other works

Novels and novellas
  • Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key (2008) (novella)
  • The Hotel Under the Sand (2009) (juvenile) Tachyon Publications

Short story collections
  • Mother Ægypt and Other Stories (2004) (title story takes place in the Company universe)
  • "Dark Mondays" (2006)
  • The Best of Kage Baker (2012) (includes stories set in and out of the Company universe)

Miscellaneous

References
  1. Kage Baker. "Bio". Archived from the original on October 3, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  2. "Obituary: Kage Baker," SF Site, January 31, 2010
  3. "Elizabethan English as a Second Language". Retrieved January 20, 2010.
  4. Bartholomew, Kathleen (May 10, 2019). "Hath not an Aspie hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?". Kathleen, Kage and the Company. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  5. "Theodore Sturgeon Award". Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
  6. Kage Baker Papers, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection, Northern Illinois University
  7. "World Fantasy Awards Home Page". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  8. "Kage Baker Health Update". Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
  9. "The 2010 Hugo and John W. Campbell Award Nominees". AussieCon 4. April 4, 2010. Archived from the original on January 21, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  10. "2009 World Fantasy Awards Nominees". Locus Online News.
  11. Standlee, Kevin (May 15, 2010). "Nebula Awards Results". Science Fiction Awards Watch. Archived from the original on May 25, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
  12. "Final novel by Kage Baker, Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea to be released". Upcoming4.me. Archived from the original on February 19, 2013. Retrieved June 20, 2012.

Further reading
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