Jeannette Ng

Jeannette Ng
Ng at the British Library in 2023
Ng at the British Library in 2023
Native name
Chinese: 吳志麗
BornHong Kong
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
Alma materDurham University
GenreFantasy
Notable works
Notable awards

Jeannette Ng (Chinese: 吳志麗) is a British fantasy writer best known for her[a] 2017 novel Under the Pendulum Sun, for which she won the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer at the 2018 British Fantasy Awards. For that work, she was also the winner of the 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, which, largely due to her acceptance speech, was shortly thereafter renamed to the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. In 2020, she won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work for that acceptance speech.

Life and education

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Ng was born in Hong Kong, and used her 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer acceptance speech to pay tribute to the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protestors.[1] In 2022 she was among the Hugo winners who signed an open letter calling for revocation of the Chinese hosting of the 2023 81st World Science Fiction Convention.[2]

She studied at Durham University, earning an M.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.[3] She lives in Durham, England.[4] Ng is a nonbinary woman and uses she or they pronouns.[5][6]

Career

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Publications

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Ng's 2017 debut novel Under the Pendulum Sun (published by Angry Robot)[3] concerns a fantastical journey in gothic mid-19th century England,[7] and was shortlisted for Starburst's 2017 Brave New Words award[8] and the 2018 Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel at the British Fantasy Awards.[9] It was named by Syfy as one of the "10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2017"[10] and included in Adam Roberts' list of "The best science fiction and fantasy of 2017" in The Guardian[11] and Jeff Somers' list of "50 of the Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy Debut Novels Ever Written."[12]

Ng won the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer at the 2018 British Fantasy Awards for Under the Pendulum Sun,[13] and was a 2018 finalist and 2019 winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, announced as part of the Hugo Awards.[14]

Her story "How the Tree of Wishes Gained its Carapace of Plastic" is included in the anthology Not So Stories, published April 2018 by Abaddon Books,[15] and was described by Starburst as "a tour de force of the author's talents."[16] Other short stories have been published in Mythic Delirium[4] and Shoreline of Infinity[17] magazines.

John W. Campbell Award and acceptance speech

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In 2019, Ng won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, awarded during the Hugo Award ceremony at the 77th World Science Fiction Convention.[18][19]

As part of her acceptance speech, she referred to the award's namesake John W. Campbell as "a fucking fascist", sparking debate in the science fiction and fantasy community.[20][1]

On 27 August, the editor of award sponsors Analog Science Fiction and Fact announced that the award would be renamed the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.[21]

In July 2020, Ng was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Related Work for her 2019 John W. Campbell Award acceptance speech.[22] In her acceptance speech for this award (delivered by video due to the COVID-19 pandemic), she said that "pulling down memorials to dead racists is not the erasing of history, it is how we make history". She also said that "Last time I gave a speech at WorldCon, it was literally hours after a huge march in Hong Kong, my most cyberpunk of cities. Since then, things have gotten worse." "The tactics used to marginalise us, the tear gas used against us, it is the same everywhere. And we defeat it in the same way. And so our coming together is more important than ever before. To write a future of joy and hope and change." "Now is the time. Now is always the time. Free Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time."[23]

Awards

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Year Nominee Award Category Result Ref
2017 Under the Pendulum Sun Starburst's Brave New Words Award — Nominated [8]
2018 British Fantasy Award Newcomer
(the Sydney J Bounds Award) 		Won [24][25]
Fantasy Novel
(the Robert Holdstock Award) 		Shortlisted [9][26]
John W. Campbell Award — Shortlisted [24]
2019 Won [24][27]
2020 2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech Hugo Award Related Work Won [24][22]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • —— (2017). Under the Pendulum Sun. Angry Robot. pp. 1–409. ISBN 9780857667274.

Short fiction

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Year Title Publication Ref Notes
2016 "Three Hundred Years" —— (March 2016). "Three Hundred Years". Mythic Delirium. 2 (3). Mythic Delirium Books.
2017 "Goddess with a Human Heart" —— (Summer 2017). "Goddess with a Human Heart". Shoreline of Infinity (8).
2018 "How the Tree of Wishes Gained Its Carapace of Plastic" —— (April 2018). "How the Tree of Wishes...". Not So Stories. Abaddon Books.
"We Regret to Inform You" —— (August 2018). "We Regret to Inform You". This Dreaming Isle.
2023 "The Girl with a City Inside of Her" —— (September 2023). "The Girl with a City Inside of Her". Uncanny Magazine (54).

Essays

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  • "Textile Arts Are Worldbuilding, Too" in Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2019), ed. Desirina Boskovich[28]
  • "As You Know, Bob...", in Uncanny Magazine (November-December 2019)[29]
  • "2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech" (2020)[1]
  • "The History and Politics of Wuxia" in Tor.com (2019)[30]
  • "She Is Sword, and She Is Sorcery: Womanhood in The Witcher and The Wheel of Time" in Uncanny Magazine (July-August 2022)[31]

Notes

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  1. ^ Ng uses both she/her and they/them pronouns; this article uses she/her pronouns for consistency.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Ng, Jeannette [@jeannette_ng] (18 August 2019). "Here is the Campbell acceptance speech I had written. Words were added and taken away on stage due to time and nerves" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 August 2019 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Brown, Lauren (14 March 2022). "Authors come out against China as 2023 WorldCon host". The Bookseller.
  3. ^ a b "Jeannette Ng". Angry Robot Books. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Mythic Delirium 2.3, Jan.-March 2016". Mythic Delirium Books. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  5. ^ Ng, Jeannette [@jeannette_ng] (19 February 2020). "The label I feel most comfortable with is "nonbinary woman"" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Fleenor, S. E. (30 September 2020). "12 Nonbinary Writers and Comic Creators Changing Science Fiction and Fantasy". SYFY Wire. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Under the Pendulum Sun Journeys to Fairyland, and Finds It Very Strange Indeed". The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  8. ^ a b "Brave New Words Award 2017 Shortlist Announced – Starburst Magazine". Starburst Magazine. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  9. ^ a b "British Fantasy Awards 2018". The British Fantasy Society. 6 July 2018. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  10. ^ Krishna, Swapna (18 December 2017). "The 10 best sci-fi and fantasy books of 2017". Syfy. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  11. ^ Roberts, Adam (30 November 2017). "The best science fiction and fantasy of 2017". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  12. ^ Somers, Jeff (9 November 2018). "50 of the Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy Debut Novels Ever Written". B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog. Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  13. ^ British Fantasy Society [@BritFantasySoc] (21 October 2018). "Sydney J Bounds award for Best Newcomer" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ "2018 Hugo Award Finalists Announced". Tor.com. 31 March 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  15. ^ Onwuemezi, Natasha (28 July 2017). "Diverse anthology 'in reaction' to Kipling set for release". The Bookseller. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  16. ^ Fortune, Ed (24 April 2018). "Not So Stories". Starburst Magazine. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  17. ^ "Shoreline of Infinity 8". Shoreline of Infinity. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  18. ^ "2019 Hugo Award & 1944 Retro Hugo Award Finalists". 2 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  19. ^ @Dublin2019 (18 August 2019). "The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer goes to Jeannette Ng" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. ^ Davison, Steve (24 August 2019). "Was John W. Campbell a F***ing Fascist, or Merely a Fascist?". Amazing Stories. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  21. ^ Northington, Jenn (28 August 2019). "The John W. Campbell Award is now the Astounding Award". Book Riot. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  22. ^ a b Flood, Alison (1 August 2020). "Arkady Martine wins Hugo for best novel, as George RR Martin hosts online ceremony". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  23. ^ Flood, Alison (1 August 2020). "2020 Hugo for Best Related Work Acceptance Speech". YouTube. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  24. ^ a b c d "sfadb : Jeanette Ng Awards". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  25. ^ "Winners | The British Fantasy Society". www.britishfantasysociety.org. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  26. ^ locusmag (22 October 2018). "2018 British Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  27. ^ "2019 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 28 July 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  28. ^ Ng, Jeannette (2019). "Textile Arts Are Worldbuilding, Too". In Boskovich, Desirina (ed.). Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Abrams Image. ISBN 978-1-4197-3465-6.
  29. ^ Ng, Jeannette (November 2019). "As You Know, Bob…". Uncanny Magazine (31).
  30. ^ Ng, Jeannette (29 June 2019). "The History and Politics of Wuxia". Tor.com.
  31. ^ Ng, Jeannette (July 2022). "She Is Sword, and She Is Sorcery: Womanhood in The Witcher and The Wheel of Time". Uncanny Magazine (47).
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