Nancy Kress bor i Brockport, staten New York i USA (på Sweden Hill Road faktiskt) tillsammans med sina söner Kevin och Brian. Utöver sitt författarskap arbetar hon som kolumnist för tidskriften Writers Digest och undervisar vid seminarier om att skriva science fiction. Tidigare har hon också arbetat i reklambranschen som copywriter. I december 1976 publicerades novellen "The Earth Dwellers" i Galaxy och Nancy Kress har därefter givit ut sju böcker. The Prince of Morning Bells, The Golden Grove och The White Pipes är fantasy, An Alien Light och Brain Rose som är science fiction, novellsamlingen Trinity and Other Stories och Beginnings, Middles and Ends, en fackbok för nybörjare om uppläggning och strukturering av intriger samt en mängd noveller och andra kortare verk. Hennes böcker har fått god kritik. Här följer några utdrag ur recensioner: The Golden Grove Nancy Kress dropped the half-humorous, half serious tone of her first fantasy novel, The Prince of Morning Bells, for her second novel, also a fantasy. Kress writes well, and the characters are drawn far more deeply than one expects from most novels of the type. / Science Fiction Chronicle The White Pipes The third fantasy novel from this author is fast paced, entertaining, and convincing, as well as being more literate than most of the novels it superficially resembles. Enjoyable even for those of us who really don't care for fantasy. / Science Fiction Chronicle Trinity and Other Stories For those of you who have not yet read the short fiction of Nancy Kress, this collection of eleven stories should be a must. Although her novels have been fantasy, much of her shorter fiction has been science fiction, and of excellent quality. [...] The title story, along with "Borovsky's Hollow Woman" and "Ten Thousand Pictures, One Word," should alone make Nancy Kress a name to be reckoned with in the field. This is one of the best single author collections of the year. / Science Fiction Chronicle An Alien Light The Ged are an alien race whose sense of order will not admit another species can travel between the stars yet fight among its own kind. When they discover such a race, humanity, they become involved with a war which, for the first time in their history, they cannot seem to win. So they locate a primitive world where two city states are in a near constant state of war and enlist members of both populations in an isolated experiment to learn just how we go about surviving with our own internal contradictions. The resulting novel is a complex, thoroughly plotted mixture of adventure and serious character development, the impressive work one would have expected from Nancy Kress after reading her short science fiction. / Science Fiction Chronicle The story is devoted to the conflicts and misunderstandings among Ged, Delysians, and Jelites, all of whom consider their own manners, mores, beliefs, and customs the only right way of doing things; any other is insane or immoral or both. The humans are murderously intolerant; the aliens intellectually superior. Despite the fact that Kress has put much thought into this concept, it just doesn't come off. Misunderstanding as a plot device has been with us from Greek legends to TV sitcoms, and how often have you become impatient with a plot which would have been utterly destroyed if two of the characters had just had a sensible, one-minute conversation? As for the human characters, for the most part they're about as interesting as any inhabitant of Iran or California who is convinced that his/her way is the way. And while it's edifying to see a couple of them (one Jelite warrior-healer and one Delysian glass blower in particular) become aware of the wonders of science and learning, it's not enough to carry the novel. / Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine Brain Rose A depth of imagination unusual even among sf writers, as well as a distinct warmth of human perception. She follows through on her premises most admirably and I commend her to you. / Analog If you can accept the idea of tapping into racial memory through surgery, Brain Rose is a fun and exciting thriller, at its strongest when conveying a sense of tragedy and futility, showing the little victories that keep people going from day to day. The upbeat conclusion, with its promise of a Second Coming (a new race/Messiah/biosphere is coming to save us!) is overdone, but hardly detracts from the overall entertainment. / Locus Convoluted threads, diverse histories, all twist and writhe toward a truly incredible conclusion. The "racial memory biosphere" recalls both Jungian synchronicity and Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere, but the ambitious whole falls through a neurological event horison. Like the Snark, it silently and suddenly vanishes away. For Kress, author of well-received fantasies and as deft with place and character as any reader could wish, well, she's simply one of those who should not write science fiction. The science here, the neurology, the psychology, the physical anthropology, the molecular biology, all glitter like juggled crystal spheres, only to shatter into shards of misunderstanding. Which is a shame, for there's marvelous sociology here, and fresh creativity. But no brain rose. Still, stems and thorns from a writer like Kress merit attention. / Quantum Mest framgångsrika har kanske ändå hennes kortare verk varit. Novellen "Out of All them Bright Stars" fick en Nebula 1985 och "The Price of Oranges" var nominerad till en Hugo 1990 i kategorin Best Novellette. Långnovellen "Beggars in Spain" har fått både Hugon och Nebulan i kategorin Best Novella 1991. Just denna berättelse har blivit mycket omtyckt, den har nämligen dessutom fått 1992 års Dell Readers Award och kom tvåa i kategorin Best Novella i Locus omröstning bland läsarna om 1991 års bästa verk. "Beggars in Spain" Kress' near-future novella focuses on the consequences of prenatal genetic manipulation, specifically on the life of one girl whose adoring father arranges for her genes to be altered so she loses the need to sleep. It's the old "mutants vs. normals" scenario, but unlike most writers, Kress doesn't emphasize how much the mutants are like the rest of us but dwells on the differences. She rams home just how much more productive and creative (in the intellectualized scenario she has set ut) the Sleepless are than the Sleepers. [...] The style is spare, with strong characters, and a clear message. Fine science fiction of the more thoughtful, sociological sort. / Locus I april i år utkommer romanen med samma titel. Den ursprungliga novellen utgör där bara den första delen och fortsättningen följer konflikten mellan "sleepless" och vanliga människor ytterligare 80 år in i framtiden. Nancy Kress har ännu en bok på gång, novellsamlingen The Aliens of Earth kommer ut i augusti i år. I december 1992 publicerades en intervju med Nancy Kress i Locus. Där berättar hon bland annat att den första science fictionbok hon läste var Clarkes Childhood's End som också fick henne att falla för genren. Favoritförfattare är dock Ursula Le Guin medan Theodore Sturgeons More Than Human påverkade henns starkt under tonåren och även därefter. Om sitt eget författarskap säger Nancy Kress att hon anser sig vara bäst på att skriva kortare historier och hon gillar sina kortare verk mer än sina romaner. Hon börjar nästan alltid en berättelse med karaktärerna, idŽn och intrigen utvecklas senare. Hon berättar också att när hon börjar skriva vet hon aldrig hur aldrig hur historien ska sluta, hon har svårigheter med att utveckla en komplicerad intrig i förväg. Skrivandet består mera i att trevande ta sig fram i mörka korridorer och följa dem vart de än leder. Därför skriver hon också för att hon vill se vad som kommer att hända med de karaktärer som hon skapat. Bibliography The Prince of Morning Bells 1981 The Golden Grove 1984 The White Pipes 1985 Trinity and Other Stories 1985 An Alien Light 1988 Brain Rose 1990 Beggars in Spain (novella) 1991 Beggars in Spain (novel) 1993 Forthcoming: The Aliens of Earth (short story coll.) 1993