Alix E. Harrow

Author

Alix E. Harrow is an American speculative fiction author whose novels and short stories blend fairy tales, history, feminism, and magic with gorgeous prose and fierce emotional intelligence. Her work reimagines familiar stories and finds new power in the oldest narratives of all. Harrow has a PhD in history and has worked as an... academic, and her deep knowledge of how stories shape the world runs through everything she writes. She lives in Kentucky with her family. The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019) was her debut novel — the story of a young woman in the early twentieth century who discovers that doors between worlds are real and that she has a particular power to open them. The novel won the British Fantasy Award and was a Hugo Award finalist, and was praised for its lush prose, its love of stories, and its exploration of freedom, identity, and the power of narrative. The Once and Future Witches (2020) reimagined the suffragette movement as a story of witchcraft — three estranged sisters in 1893 who rediscover lost magic and use it to fight for women's rights. Starling House (2023) was a gothic mystery set in a haunted house in Kentucky. Her short fiction includes "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies," which won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The Everlasting and other works continue her exploration of magic, history, and the stories we tell ourselves. Harrow writes with a historian's depth and a fairy-tale teller's instinct for wonder. Her prose is beautiful, her themes are ambitious, and her emotional register ranges from fierce anger to tender hope. The audiobook editions of Harrow's novels are enchanting, with narrators capturing the lyricism and emotional power of her prose. Her books and audiobooks are essential for readers who love magic, history, and stories about the power of stories themselves. Read more Show less