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Nicola Griffith

Goodreads Author

Born

in Leeds, Yorkshire, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.nicolagriffith.com/

Twitter

nicolaz

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mystery & Thrillers

Influences

Brilliantly written poetic sagas honed by time and performance.

Member Since

April 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/nicolaz

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Nicola Griffith has won the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize, the Society of Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Washington State Book Award (twice), the Nebula Award, the Otherwise/James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, Premio Italia, Lambda Literary Award (6 times), and others. She is also the co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies. Her newest novels are Hild and So Lucky. Her Aud Torvingen novels are soonn to be rereleased in new editions. She lives in Seattle with her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge, where she's working on the sequel to Hild, Menewood.

Series:
* Aud Torvingen ...more

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Ask the Author

Nicola Griffith is currently not accepting new questions.

Popular Answered Questions

What is the strangest fact about Hild's times that you uncovered in your research? (Or perhaps just your favorite piece of lore?)

Nicola Griffith That by one estimate women in early 7th-C Britain spent 65% of their time on the production of textiles. Think about: that's more than childcare and f…moreThat by one estimate women in early 7th-C Britain spent 65% of their time on the production of textiles. Think about: that's more than childcare and food preparation put together! It completely changed my approach to the book.

Verbs like weave and sow and harvest and rett and scutch and beat and spin and dye, not to mention comb and sew and shear and cut and clean and full took over my world. And made me reimagine the cultural institutions of the time. I mean, if you're spending two-thirds of your life on something, it will be woven into every aspect of your community. (It changed my metaphors, too...)

If you want to know more, see this blog post:
http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2012/06...

Or read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Clothing-Anglo-...(less)

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38 likes · like
4 comments

I absolutely loved your book _Hild_. Thanks so much for writing it! You depict a fairly open attitude to homosexual relations. In your research for the book, did you come across any evidence on attitudes to homosexuality, or was this part of what you "made up"?

Nicola Griffith Thank you!

Hild isn't lesbian/homosexual. She's bisexual. I doubt they had such terms back then, though. I've seen no evidence that who you did or did …moreThank you!

Hild isn't lesbian/homosexual. She's bisexual. I doubt they had such terms back then, though. I've seen no evidence that who you did or did not have sex with defined how women thought of themselves.

Actually, there's no evidence for anything, sexually, in early seventh-century northern Britain. Nothing. No material culture and no text.

I'm guessing that Roman Christians, being Pauline to the core, would have disapproved. Indeed, Breguswith says as much in the book: be careful around the priests. But that was as much about having sex with anyone as having sex with women. Monks and priests like Bede (if we go purely by written evidence) thought women were more holy if they didn't have sex at all; being a virgin was better than being married, for example.

The way I see it, at the time, before widespread conversion to Roman Christianity, no one much cared who you did and didn't have sex with. Sex wasn't a moral issue. All royal women before the founding of nunneries (I think--though I'm wary of the words 'always' and 'never' in any context, never mind a time we know so little about) got married, and that if they then wanted to have sex with other women no one would much care as long as they were discreet. After all, the point of marriage was alliance, household management, and the provision of heirs. Married girls loving other married girls wouldn't have any impact on any of these points.

I talk about that a bit here: http://gemaecca.blogspot.com/2008/08/...

There again, there's this incident from Ireland from the 8th century that makes sex between women sound rather jolly and uncomplicated:
http://gemaecca.blogspot.com/2008/08/...

Make of that what you will...(less)

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Combine Editions
Nicola Griffith’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 44,389 ratings · 6,945 reviews · 49 distinct works • Similar authors

	Hild (The Hild Sequence, #1) 3.85 avg rating — 12,751 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Spear 4.06 avg rating — 8,864 ratings — published 2022	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ammonite 3.90 avg rating — 7,162 ratings — published 1992 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Slow River 3.86 avg rating — 4,190 ratings — published 1995 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Blue Place (Aud Torvingen #1) 3.90 avg rating — 2,368 ratings — published 1998 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	So Lucky 3.63 avg rating — 1,852 ratings — published 2018 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Menewood (The Hild Sequence #2) 4.48 avg rating — 1,411 ratings — published 2023 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stay (Aud Torvingen #2) 4.07 avg rating — 1,443 ratings — published 1999 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Always (Aud Torvingen #3) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 981 ratings — published 2007 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cold Wind 3.62 avg rating — 557 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Nicola Griffith…

1222 posts
Nicola Griffith's Blog

Glad of Simple Joys

Nicely designed graphic with a quote from Charles M Schulz

The Economist gets something right

Almost the end of November and here in Seattle things are cold, dark, and wet. But I was struck by the above quote from one of the Economist‘s newsletters; it encapsulates perfectly my mood for today.

Some of our flowers are certainly striving mightily to live their best lives, no matter how brief, witness one snapdragon and one (of three!) geraniums bursting forth

Series by Nicola Griffith

The Hild Sequence (2 books)
by

Nicola Griffith (Goodreads Author)

3.91 avg rating — 14,162 ratings

Aud Torvingen (3 books)
by

Nicola Griffith (Goodreads Author)

3.97 avg rating — 4,792 ratings

Bending the Landscape (3 books)
by

Nicola Griffith (Goodreads Author) (Editor / Contributor),

Stephen Pagel (Editor / Contributor),

J.K. Potter (Artist),

Kraig Blackwelder (Contributor),

Carrie Richerson (Contributor),

Ellen Klages (Contributor),

Gary Bowen (Contributor),

Brian A. Hopkins (Contributor),

more…
3.67 avg rating — 568 ratings

If you love the fantasy genre, this is the season for you! Some of the biggest books out this fall promise to be epics full of magic, adventure,...

Nicola is Currently Reading

Nicola Griffith is currently reading

Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets

by Brian Boyd

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Nicola Griffith said: " Just started this. So far: fascinating. Verse as information pattern-making and -breaking, designed for ease of cognitive consumption and retention. Haven't even got to Shakespeare yet... ...more "

May 07, 2012 03:11PM · see review

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Nicola’s Recent Updates

Nicola Griffith wrote a new blog post Glad of Simple Joys The Economist gets something rightAlmost the end of November and here in Seattle things are cold, dark, and wet. But I was struck by the above quote f Read more of this blog post »
23 hours, 54 min ago · like

More of Nicola's books…

Quotes by Nicola Griffith (?)

“Dogs own space and cats own time.”
― Nicola Griffith, Hild

tags: behavior, cats, dogs

43 likes

“She liked time at the edges of things -- the edge of the crowd, the edge of the pool, the edge of the wood -- where all must pass but none quite belonged.”
― Nicola Griffith, Hild

19 likes

“Writing a balanced, beautiful novel, where plot and character and
setting and pacing and narrative structure and imagery and, above all,
story work in harmony and true proportion, is fucking *hard*."
--Nicola Griffith,
www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030929...”
― Nicola Griffith

11 likes

See all Nicola Griffith's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read for May/June?

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

20 votes, 28.2%

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

16 votes, 22.5%

Thoreau in Love by John Schuyler Bishop

11 votes, 15.5%

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

8 votes, 11.3%

Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff

7 votes, 9.9%

A Hole in the World by Sophie Robbins

5 votes, 7.0%

Plata quemada by Ricardo Piglia

4 votes, 5.6%

71 total votes

5 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: 5.3 (S.P.R.I.N.G)	29	206	Feb 25, 2010 10:42AM
Beyond Reality: Nominations for September!	10	60	Jun 20, 2010 01:22PM
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SciFi and Fantasy...: Looking for SciFi or Fantasy with gay main characters	20	344	Jul 29, 2010 02:09PM
Queereaders: LGBTQ Science Fiction	34	77	Sep 20, 2010 10:36AM

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Nicola’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-8) post a comment »

date

newest »

message 8: by Nicola

Aug 05, 2015 09:38AM

Hayley wrote: "I just started Master and Commander. I don't attach notes to the books in my 'to read' file because most of the time I don't want to be influenced by the recommendation, review, interview, etc. but..."

I' *delighted* to turn another reader on to the series! Enjoy!

reply | flag

message 7: by Hayley

Aug 05, 2015 05:55AM

I just started Master and Commander. I don't attach notes to the books in my 'to read' file because most of the time I don't want to be influenced by the recommendation, review, interview, etc. but last night when I started the book your name came to mind. I just read your essay for NPR on this series and now remember why I put the first of 20(! Really?!)on my reading list. I don't feel influenced because 30 pages in...I'm hooked. And I'm right with you...never would have given this book or subject matter a second glance. Onward, to reading bliss.

reply | flag

message 6: by Nicola

May 28, 2012 02:49PM

Karen wrote: "Hi Nicola,
Fabulous to find you here. A few years ago, we chatted over at My Space.
My memoir, ME & HER: A Memoir of Madness,
my journey INTO and out of Insanity is now on Amazon and Goodreads wi..."

Hello again. Congrats on the reviews.

reply | flag

message 5: by Karen

May 28, 2012 12:48PM

Hi Nicola,
Fabulous to find you here. A few years ago, we chatted over at My Space.
My memoir, ME & HER: A Memoir of Madness,
my journey INTO and out of Insanity is now on Amazon and Goodreads with 5 Star reviews.
Please check out http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
cheers,
Karen :)

reply | flag

message 4: by Nicola

May 04, 2012 10:36AM

Lettie wrote: "Thanks for the friendship add!"

My pleasure.

reply | flag

message 3: by Nicola

May 04, 2012 10:35AM

Elaine wrote: "Nice page. I see you are also a Virgo. I was going to add that I'm probably a lot older, but I can't compare to 0614. If I'm reading that correctly. Hmm, I'm already a fan and a "friend." What else..."

I chose 614 because that's Hild's birth year. But my birthday is 30th Sept.--which makes me a Libra.

The biggest, best thing you can do do is review one of my books, I think. But I'm so new to all this I'm honestly not sure. Thanks for friending and liking.

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message 2: by Elaine

May 04, 2012 09:43AM

Nice page. I see you are also a Virgo. I was going to add that I'm probably a lot older, but I can't compare to 0614. If I'm reading that correctly. Hmm, I'm already a fan and a "friend." What else can I do...Like, I guess. Will do.
Elaine

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message 1: by Lettie

Dec 17, 2011 11:59AM

Thanks for the friendship add!

reply | flag

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