Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik (born April 30, 1973) is an American author of speculative fiction best known for the Temeraire series—an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars featuring dragons—and her standalone fantasy novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver. She grew up in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, the daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish father and a Polish Catholic mother, and credits reading The Lord of the Rings at age six as a formative influence. She earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Brown University and a master's degree in computer science from Columbia University. Novik broke into publishing with His Majesty's Dragon (2006), the first Temeraire novel, which won the Compton Crook Award and was nominated for a Hugo Award. The series ran to nine volumes and was published by Del Rey Books. She transitioned to standalone fantasy with Uprooted (2015), a fairy-tale-inspired novel rooted in Polish folklore that won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the British Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. Her second standalone, Spinning Silver (2018), reworked the Rumpelstiltskin tale in a setting inspired by tsarist-era Eastern Europe and won a second Mythopoeic Award along with the Alex Award and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. She later launched the Scholomance trilogy (2020–2022), a darker YA fantasy series, with A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves. Novik is also a co-founder of the fan-fiction archive site Archive of Our Own (AO3), which won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2019. Novik lives in New York City. She has received widespread critical recognition for her ability to blend meticulous historical research with vivid fantasy worldbuilding and emotionally resonant characterization.