The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has nominated author Nicola Griffith to be the 41st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master, an honor that recognizes the recipient’s lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.
Griffith is the author of nine novels, including Hild, Spear, and Ammonite, and is known for her work queering the Early Medieval. She has also researched bias in the literary ecosystem and is co-host of #CripLit—a Twitter chat by and for disabled writers—along with Alice Wong.
“It is SFWA’s honor to recognize and celebrate her past achievements, while looking forward to her future triumphs,” SFWA president Kate Ristau said in a statement. “Her work continues to inspire and challenge me, and when asked to pick a Grand Master to lead us into our Diamond Year, I looked to Nicola for her stunning fiction, as well as her leadership and advocacy. She challenges us to reconsider the past and imagine a better, more inclusive future. She is the perfect Grand Master for our present moment, demonstrating through her life and work how to find one’s self, one’s purpose, and one’s community in complicated times, and to embrace those things joyfully and fully. Fifty years after SFWA named its first Grand Master, we are thrilled to shine the spotlight on Nicola Griffith as our 41st.”
“I am thunderstruck,” Griffith said in the same statement. “Amazed and moved and brimming with joy. I might never stop smiling.”
Griffith will formally receive the title at SFWA’s 60th Nebula Awards Conference, which is set to take place June 5-8, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri. For more details, please visit the conference website.
