Press

If you need information on me for an article or interview, this page contains a short biography as well as basic biographical information. It also photographs that you are welcome to use for articles and interviews.

Short Biography

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States, where she completed a PhD in English literature. She is the World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award-winning author of the short story and poetry collections In the Forest of Forgetting (2006), Songs for Ophelia (2014), and Snow White Learns Witchcraft (2019), as well as novella The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), debut novel The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017), and sequels European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (2018) and The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl (2019). She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University. Visit her at theodoragoss.com.

Biographical Information

I was born in Budapest, Hungary. My family left the country when I was five, and I lived for two years in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium. My family immigrated to the United States when I was seven. I grew up in Maryland and Virginia, around the Washington D.C. area. I now live and work in Boston, where I moved for graduate school.

I have a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from Boston University. I am also a graduate of the Odyssey and Clarion writing workshops. I sold my first published story, “The Rose in Twelve Petals,” while a student at Clarion, and have been publishing steadily since.

I currently teach writing and literature in the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program. I have also taught in the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing, the Odyssey writing workshop, the Alpha writing workshop for young writers, and in writing workshops at Readercon, Boskone, and Wiscon.

My work has won the following awards:

Mythopoeic Award, 2020, for Snow White Learns Witchcraft.
Lord Ruthven Award, 2019, for European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.
Locus Award, 2018, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
Audie Award, 2018, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (audiobook).
Rhysling Award, 2017, for “Rose Child.”
World Fantasy Award, 2008, for “Singing of Mount Abora.”
Rhysling Award, 2004, for “Octavia is Lost in the Hall of Masks.”

My work has been a finalist for the following awards:

Seiun Award, 2021, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (Japanese).
Geffen Award, 2021, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (Hebrew).
Shirley Jackson Award, 2020, for “How to Become a Witch-Queen.”
Locus Award, 2020, for Snow White Learns Witchcraft and “A Country Called Winter.”
Rhysling Award, 2020, for “The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly.”
Locus Award, 2019, for European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman and “Queen Lily.”
Locus Award, 2018, for “Come See the Living Dryad.”
Nebula Award, 2018, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
Compton Crook Award, 2018, for The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
Locus Award, 2017, for “Red as Blood and White as Bone”
Seiun Award, 2016, for “Beautiful Boys” (Japanese).
Mythopoeic Award, 2015, for Songs for Ophelia.
Seiun Award, 2014, for “Christopher Raven” (Japanese).
Finalist, Locus Award, 2011, for “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter.”
Mythopoeic Award, 2008, for In the Forest of Forgetting.
Tiptree Award Honor List, 2008, for Interfictions.
Crawford Award, 2007, for In the Forest of Forgetting.
Nebula Award, 2007, for “Pip and the Fairies.”
World Fantasy Award, 2005, for “The Wings of Meister Wilhelm.”

My publications have been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Photographs

If you need photographs of me for articles or interviews, here are some author photos that you are welcome to use. Click on each photo to open a larger version suitable for print or online media.