About

I am a science fiction and fantasy writer living in St. Paul, Minnesota. I’ve been writing science fiction and fantasy since I was a teenager (which was a long time ago now).

My fiction has won a bunch of awards. (Not shown here: the Minnesota Book Award, because that’s a beautiful little glass sphere that needs to be stored somewhere the cats can’t get to it.)

Four Hugos; an Edgar Award; a Nebula Award; a Lodestar Award; two Fishing Fortress Science Fiction Awards (those are a Chinese award); a Locus Award; a WSFA Small Press Award; a print of the cover of the Locus magazine that featured me; a set of "author cards" from McSweeneys that included me (they look like baseball cards.)

My next book, OBSTETRIX, is a novella coming out from Tor’s novella line in June 2026. (If you’re reading this in 2028, well, I’m currently updating stuff I wrote in 2020. Maybe I will update again before 2030 but don’t count on it.)

I also write about politics (mainly elections) in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The main thing I do is to write an election guide with an in-depth guide to the candidates in local races, especially races that tend to not get a lot of coverage. I have been doing this since 2006 — I started out just typing up my ballot research into my LiveJournal so that my local friends could benefit from my Googling, and they passed along the link to friends and neighbors, and now thousands of people check out one or more of my posts each year. I write this guide as a hobby and as a form of public service. I don’t have a Patreon (at least, not at the moment) but I usually run a fundraiser each year.

 

 

8 thoughts on “About

  1. Thanks for your concise, insightful commentary on this year’s elections. I’m voting absentee ballot and found that I really don’t know much about lower ballot candidates. I’m pretty old and enjoy running across younger people who are bright and articulate, whether in person or through websites like your own.
    Thanks for mentioning some of my favorite journalists. I once lived in Chicago and hadn’t thought of Royko in years.
    I wish I could say I am familiar with
    your books, but I will look forward to reading some. Reading has been one of my passions most of my life. Thanks again and rock on.

  2. Thank you so much for your write-up. And based on your comment about not crossing the river because of vampirism, I will definitely read your science fiction.

  3. Thank you for your analysis of this Judicial contest. You made some points that helped me, and I also think Greg Egan sounds like a good bet. From what I’ve heard the public defender’s job requires an idealist, is low pay and often thankless. And all of his pro bono stuff is impressive, unless you assume that he’s been preparing to run for some kind of office for years by donating his talents.

    BTW, while I am not an SF fan in general, my older brother was Thomas M Disch, and he attained a certain amount of fame as one of the early New Wave SF writers in the 60’s and beyond. I have a lot of his books ( remainders ), and I know that very few people want books anymore, but if you know and like his writing I would be happy to give you some of them.

    Regards, Jeff Disch, St.Paul

    • I love Tom Disch. I took a class from him that he taught at the Loft in Minneapolis many years ago. He was a very good writer and a fantastic encouraging coach. Unfortunately, I lacked self-confidence and initiative. I did not follow through and only returned to writing near retirement. Finally got something published, in the St Paul Almanac last year. I would love any books that Naomi does not ask for. I read many of his stories many years ago.

  4. So proud of you, Naomi!

    I love science fiction and have greatly enjoyed your work. This is from David Cunningham’s mother – your elementary school friend.

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