Elizabeth Bear is an American science fiction and fantasy author, born September 22, 1971 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her first professionally-published fiction appeared in 2003; since then, she has published eleven solo novels (Hammered, Scardown, Worldwired, Blood and Iron, Whiskey and Water, Ink and Steel, Hell and Earth, Dust, Carnival, New Amsterdam, and Undertow), one novel in collaboration with Sarah Monette (A Companion to Wolves), and a story collection (The Chains that You Refuse). A twelfth solo novel, All the Windwracked Stars, is forthcoming in November 2008; in a starred review, Publishers Weekly hailed it as “rewarding and compelling.” With Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Sarah Monette, and Amanda Downum, she is one of the creators of Shadow Unit, an ongoing virtual television series instantiated on the web. Her web site is at , and she maintains a popular LiveJournal at matociquala.livejournal.com. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005 and the 2006 Locus Award for Best First Novel for the "Jenny Casey" trilogy (Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired). In 2008, her short story "Tideline" won the Sturgeon Award and the Hugo Award for best short story of the year.