Kameron Hurley is an American author writing on war and resistance movements. She is particularly known for The Light Brigade, The Stars are Legion, and The Worldbreaker Saga.
Background
Kameron Hurley was born on January 12, 1980, in Battle Ground, Washington, United States. She grew up in a family with a strong military tradition. Her grandfather participated in the liberation of France during World War II. He and his wife, Kameron's grandmother, have survived the occupation. From her childhood, Hurley has been a fan of military science fiction.
Education
Hurley has a Bachelor of Arts degree in historical studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, specializing in the history of South African resistance movements.
Career
Kameron Hurley began publishing short fiction in 1998. Her numerous short fiction credits include Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed, and Amazing Stories as well as many anthologies. In 2010 she began writing novels. With the novel God’s War (2010) she began The Bel Dame Apocrypha series. It includes also two more books: Infidel (2011) and Rapture (2012). Her short fiction books are Brutal Women (2010) and Apocalypse Nyx (2018). Her short fiction credits include Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed, and Amazing Stories as well as many anthologies.
Hurley is also the author of the award-winning essay collection The Geek Feminist Revolution, which has had excerpts featured in The Huffington Post, Bitch Magazine, and Tor.com. Her nonfiction has appeared in many venues, such as The Atlantic, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Writers Digest, and Entertainment Weekly. She also writes a regular column about writing and publishing for Locus Magazine. Hurley has also been a Stollee guest lecturer at Buena Vista University, a LITA President’s Program speaker, and taught copywriting at the School of Advertising Art.
In 2004 she started a blog. Her academic background is also in war and resistance movements, and she’d spent the better part of the last two decades immersing herself into the history of propaganda and recruitment, training and trauma, around the world and across a number of conflicts, large and small. Her more recent book is Meet Me in the Future (2019).
Views
Kameron Hurley enjoys writing the speculative genres the most. She finds that it’s easier to get people to question their own assumptions when she takes them out of the here-and-now and put them someplace really different. Changing the rules also helps her explore her own assumptions about the world.
Her background is in historical studies, so she knows how people organize themselves and what they consider “normal” as far as human behavior goes, has varied widely.
Being able to experiment and hone her form in nonfiction is something that’s for her tougher to do in novel writing.
Her grandfather and grandmother told her stories about World War II and the occupation. These stories had a profound influence on her and on all the work that she'd done.
Quotations:
"The reality is that much of the stuff you see in film, television, comics, and children's cartoons got its start inside the inspired, disruptive halls of science-fiction and fantasy literature."
"As an introverted kid who lived in the middle of nowhere, my stories made up the whole of my social life. That meant that while other kids cultivated hobbies like skateboarding or playing the piano, I sat at home scribbling in notebooks."
"Creating a future requires a profound and yes, unrealistic, vision of what is possible. But it is fantasy and wonder that drive technology and innovation."
"I think the anger of any kind is valuable. It's all about learning how to channel it. The worst thing we can do is get bored or complacent or worse - suppress our anger and then see it burst forth in unhealthy ways."
"Historically, science-fiction and fantasy literature is no stranger to controversy, but it has learned how to adapt and endure."
"Being a writer, writing for a living is one long persistence game. Everyone wants you to quit. Quite often, you want to quit. You get kicked down. You come up swinging. You keep going. Either you are committed to it, or you aren't."
"I think that there's this idea - especially for male readers, but female readers as well, because we're all indoctrinated, right? - where there's this idea that if a woman is tough, it can only be in a way that is still sexy."
"We don't fall in love with perfect people. We fall in love with complex ones."
"I want to write books that keep people up at night, where they cry through the first forty pages and keep reading anyway."
Personality
Kameron Hurley's favorite movie is Die Hard. She watches it at least twice a year.
She likes scotch neat. Her favorites are Laphroaig and Talisker.
Quotes from others about the person
"Hurley is one of the most important voices in the field." - James S. A. Corey
"Kameron Hurley’s writing is the most exciting thing I’ve seen on the genre page." - Richard K. Morgan
"Kameron Hurley’s a brave, unflinching, truly original writer with a unique vision - her fiction burns right through your brain and your heart." - Jeff VanderMeer