Kathleen Ann Goonan

Kathleen Ann Goonan (born 14 May 1952) is an American science fiction writer. Several of her books have been nominated for the Nebula Award. Her debut novel Queen City Jazz was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and her novel In War Times was chosen by the American Library Association as Best Science Fiction Novel for their 2008 reading list. In July 2008, In War Times won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her most recent novel, This Shared Dream was released in July 2011 by Tor Books.

Goonan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the setting of her first novel, and at age eight moved to Hawaii, the setting for her second novel, while her father worked for the Navy for two years. She currently divides her time between the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and the Florida Keys with her husband, Joseph Mansy, whom she married in 1977.

She has a degree in English Literature and Philosophy from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and following graduation, received an Association Montessori Internationale teaching certification from the Montessori Institute in Washington, D.C., and then opened a Montessori school in Knoxville. Following a later move to Hawaii, she became a full-time writer. She is currently a Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing and Science Fiction at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Goonan is best known for novels which give snapshots taken at different times of a world where nano- and biotechnologies ("bionan") produce deep changes in humans and their habitat. She explores themes of cultural and social change and catastrophe. She is a great lover of jazz and music in general, and peppers her tales with references to (and reincarnations of) the likes of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Sun Ra.

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