Wagner, Erin K
Entry updated 7 July 2025. Tagged: Author.

(? - ) US academic and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "To See If It Is Possible" in Tales of the Talisman #10 for 17 December 2014. The Green and Growing (2019 chap), a densely constructed novella with Planetary Romance intonations, follows the life of the daughter of the ruler of a planet that has successfully defeated the people of an adjoining world. She is formally exchanged with an opposing figure, and finds that the planet she now inhabits is a sentient forest world (see Gaia; Living Worlds), which may be controlled by a covert AI. An Unnatural Life (2020) is set on a colony planet, though the expectable Space Opera background is almost entirely lacking. The story focuses on the trial of an Android, known here as robotnik, accused of murdering a human (see Crime and Punishment). Wagner has a style both concise and occasionally rich, which conveys a sense of embeddedness to her tales (some bylined E K Wagner): what is surprising in her work is not the worlds naturalistically depicted but the subtle dramas she explores within them. Mechanize My Hands to War (2024) is set in Near Future Appalachia, where Androids are becoming the scapegoats of first choice (see Race in SF). [JC]
Erin K Wagner
born Ohio
works
- The Green and Growing (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2019) [novella: chap: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/]
- An Unnatural Life (New York: Tordotcom, 2020) [pb/Will Staehle]
- Mechanize My Hands to War (New York: DAW, 2024) [hb/Faceout Studio/Tim Green]
collections
- When Home, No Need to Cry (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2023) [coll: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/]
links
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