Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Hand is an American writer born on March 29, 1957, in Yonkers, New York. She grew up in Yonkers and Pound Ridge and studied drama and anthropology at the Catholic University of America. Since 1988 she has lived in coastal Maine (Lincolnville) and spends part of the year in Camden Town, London.
Her first story, "Prince of Flowers," appeared in 1988, and her first novel, Winterlong, came out in 1990. She co-created the DC Comics series Anima with Paul Witcover in the 1990s.
Hand writes science fiction and fantasy. Notable novels include Waking the Moon (1994), which won the Tiptree Award and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award; Glimmering (1997); Black Light (1999), a New York Times Notable Book; Mortal Love (2004); and Generation Loss (2007). The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon (short story) won a World Fantasy Award.
Her short-story collections include Last Summer at Mars Hill (1998), which contains award-winning works; Bibliomancy (2002), which won the World Fantasy Award; and Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories (2006), which includes the Nebula-winning "Echo." Individual stories like "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" (2002) and "Cleopatra Brimstone" (2001) won International Horror Guild Awards.
She also writes film and television tie-ins, including Star Wars novels and tie-ins for The X-Files and 12 Monkeys, and contributed a Bride of Frankenstein novel to Dark Horse Comics.
A common theme in her work, especially in Winterlong, is the exploitation of animals and plants for genetic experiments, with creatures like the ancient Basilosaurus Zalophus and other engineered beings.
In addition to fiction, Hand has been a critic for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Review, Salon, and Village Voice, and she writes a regular review column for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Official website: elizabethhand.com
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:42 (CET).