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I grew up in Annville, Pennsylvania, as the youngest of five children. Our parents were Catholic theologians, and our family emphasized mysticism, social justice, and the centrality of art to religious experience. Despite growing up on art, I set my heart on becoming an astronaut----so went to Wellesley College and MIT, worked at NASA during the summers, and got my pilot's license. But while at MIT, studying geochemistry, I realized I much preferred to make things up. I finished a Master's degree, moved to Durham, North Carolina, and have been writing ever since.

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I graduated from the Clarion Workshop in 2008, where I studied with Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, and Kelly Link. My debut novel, The Girl in the Road, was published in 2014. It won the Tiptree Award and was listed for the Kitschie, Locus, and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. My second novel, The Actual Star, was published by Harper Voyager on September 14, 2021, and won the Manly Wade Wellman Award. I've performed original monologues twice at TED, hosted a technology series for ViceUK, and spoken across the country on futurism and science fiction. My short stories and essays have been published in The Baffler, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Religion Dispatches, Wired, Tor.com, Electric Velocipede, Fantasy Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Electric Literature, and Glimmer Train. I've written five plays produced in Durham, one of which, What Every Girl Should Know, has been performed from Berkeley to Dublin. 

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Since 2022, because of the rising cost of living in Durham, I've been living and writing on the road. I'm supported entirely by a community of individuals who value creative and intellectual freedom, and also of course my updates from Ireland, England, Portugal, Tunisia, Romania, Scotland, India, Thailand, and Taiwan (so far). If you'd like to get them too, go here! 

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