Sam J. Miller

Sam J. Miller
Born
Sam Joshua Miller

(1979-02-07) February 7, 1979 (age 47)
EducationRutgers University (BA)
OccupationWriter
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Years active2008–present
GenresScience fiction, fantasy, horror
Notable worksThe Art of Starving
Blackfish City
Notable awardsShirley Jackson Award (2013)
Campbell Memorial Award (2019)
Locus Award (2023)
Websitesamjmiller.com Edit this at Wikidata

Sam J. Miller (born February 7, 1979) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror author. His stories have appeared in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Asimov's Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and more. They've been reprinted in over 15 "Year's Best" collections. He has been a finalist for the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and Theodore Sturgeon Award. His short story "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award.

His second novel, Blackfish City, won the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Early life and education

Sam J. Miller grew up in Hudson, New York, where his family ran a butcher shop. He attended Rutgers University, where he studied Cinema Studies and Russian language and literature. He grew up Jewish and lives with his husband in New York City, where he works as a community organizer for a homelessness organization.

Miller was a member of the 2012 Clarion Workshop, studying under authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, and Ted Chiang.

Career

Miller began publishing stories in ’zines and online in the early 2000s, but didn't make his first pro-sale until 2013. His short story "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" (Nightmare Magazine) won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Fiction. His other stories have been published in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Asimov's Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, and Lightspeed. His stories have been reprinted in over 15 "Year's Best" story collections and have been a finalist for multiple Nebula Awards, along with the World Fantasy Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Miller states that he writes "speculative fiction because that's how the world looks to me. Life is magic. Human society is horror. The world is science fiction." While Miller deals with politics in his work as a community organizer, he says that "arguing a political point is a pretty good way to kill a story. But I do think it's possible to explore in fiction the issues that are important to us. That's the writing that excites me the most." "I love activism narratives. I love narratives about fighting back. As much as I love reading about what scares me, I love reading about how we fight back…"

Miller's prose has been called "evocative," "disturbing," and "grim stuff, but compelling."

Miller's young adult novel The Art of Starving was released by HarperCollins in July 2017. The novel is about a gay, bullied teenage boy who believes that extreme hunger awakens supernatural abilities and is rooted in Miller's own experience with an adolescent eating disorder. It was a finalist for the 2018 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (formerly titled the World Science Fiction Society Award) and won the 2017 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

His first novel for adults, Blackfish City, was released in April 2018 by Ecco Press. His second young adult novel, Destroy All Monsters, was published by HarperTeen in 2019. His second adult novel, The Blade Between, was published by Ecco Press in 2020. Both Blackfish City and The Blade Between received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews.

Miller's first short-fiction collection, Boys, Beasts & Men, was published in May 2022 by Tachyon Publications. The collection contains both previously published and unpublished stories, as well as an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar. In Paula Guran's review for Locus, she said of Miller's writing, "Only an assemblage like this can truly display his talent, versatility, imagination, and flat-out uniqueness... His tales invariably strike deep into both a reader’s heart and gut." Boys, Beasts & Men was a finalist for the 2023 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection. It won the 2023 Locus Award for Best Collection.

In October 2025, Miller released the short novel, Red Star Hustle, from Saga Doubles, in a two-sided book with Mary Robinette Kowal's Apprehension. The double-sided book is made up of "two expertly crafted crime stories set in a far-future science fiction universe..." It was named one of Lit Hub's "33 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025".

Awards and nominations

Year Title Award Category Result Ref
2013 "57 Reasons for Slate Quarry Suicides" Shirley Jackson Award Short Fiction Won
2014 "The Beasts We Want To Be" Locus Award Short Story Finalist
'"We Are the Cloud" Nebula Award Novelette Finalist
2015 Theodore Sturgeon Award — Nominated
"When Your Child Strays from God" Nebula Award Short Story Finalist
2016 "The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History" World Fantasy Award Short Fiction Finalist
"Things With Beards" Nebula Award Novelette Finalist
Shirley Jackson Award Short Fiction Finalist
2017 Theodore Sturgeon Award — Nominated
"Angel, Monster, Man" Shirley Jackson Award Novelette Finalist
The Art of Starving Andre Norton Award — Won
2018 Crawford Award — Shortlisted
Lodestar Award — Shortlisted
Locus Award First Novel Finalist
Blackfish City Nebula Award Best Novel Finalist
2019 Campbell Memorial Award — Won
2020 Destroy All Monsters Locus Award Young Adult Novel Finalist
2021 "Let All the Children Boogie" Nebula Award Short Story Finalist
2022 Locus Award Short Story Finalist
2023 Boys, Beasts & Men Locus Award Collection Won
World Fantasy Award Collection Finalist
2026 "Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead" Locus Award Short Story Finalist

Bibliography

Novels

Collections

  • Boys, Beasts & Men. Tachyon Publications. 2022. ISBN 9781616963729.

Anthology appearances

Short fiction

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
"The Beasts We Want To Be" 2013 Electric Velocipede #27 (Winter 2013) Boys, Beasts & Men
(June 2022)
"57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" 2013 Nightmare Magazine #15
(December 2013)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022)
"Allosaurus Burgers" 2014 Shimmer Magazine #20
(July 2014)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022)
"We are the Cloud" 2014 Lightspeed #52
(August 2014)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 (October 2015) Novelette
"The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History" 2015 Uncanny Magazine #2
(Jan/Feb 2015)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 (October 2016)
"When Your Child Strays from God" 2015 Clarkesworld Magazine #106 (July 2015) Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022)
"Ghosts of Home" 2015 Lightspeed #63
(August 2015)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (May 2016)
"Calved" 2015 Asimov's Science Fiction (September 2015) Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (May 2016); The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 1 (June 2016); The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (July 2016)
"Angel, Monster, Man" 2016 Nightmare Magazine #40
(January 2016)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); Wilde Stories 2017: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction (July 2017); The Year's Best Weird Fiction: Volume 4 Novelette
"Things With Beards" 2016 Clarkesworld Magazine #117 (June 2016) Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven (April 2017); The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 2 (April 2017);The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (July 2017); The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017 (October 2017)
"The Future of Hunger in the Age of Programmable Matter" 2017 Tor.com chapbook
(October 2017)
"Conspicuous Plumage" 2018 Lightspeed #100
(September 2018)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022)
"Last Gods" 2018 Clarkesworld Magazine #142 (July 2018) The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 2 (April 2017)
"Shattered Sidewalks of the Human Heart" 2019 Clarkesworld Magazine #154 (July 2019) Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 1 (October 2020)
"Shucked" 2019 The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #746
(Nov/Dec 2019)		 Boys, Beasts & Men (June 2022); The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2020 Edition (August 2021)
"It Was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes It All Right" 2019 A People’s Future of the United States
(February 2019)
"The Nation of the Sick" 2020 Entanglements: Tomorrow’s Lovers, Families, and Friends (Penguin House, 2020)
"Let All the Children Boogie" 2021 Tor.com chapbook
(January 2021)		 The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 (October 2022)
"Darkness Metastatic" 2021 Nightmare Magazine #100 (January 2021)
"Tyrannosaurus Hex" 2021 Uncanny Magazine
(January 2021)
"Feral Arcade Children of the American Northeast" 2021 The Southwest Review (August 2021) The Big Book of Cyberpunk (September 2023)
"Sun in an Empty Room" 2022 Boys, Beasts & Men
(June 2022)
Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy 2022 Solaris Satellites chapbook (July 2022), ISBN 978-1-78618-732-1 Novella
"A Field Guide to the Bear Men of Leningrad" 2023 The Kenyon Review (2023)
"If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak" 2023 The Dark Magazine #98
(July 2023)		 The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 (October 2024)
"Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead" 2025 Nightmare Magazine #157 (October 2025)
"The Cinema of Babel" 2026 Uncanny Magazine #71
(July 2026)

References

  1. ↑ "Summary Bibliography: Sam J. Miller". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  2. ↑ Miller, Sam J. [@sentencebender] (February 7, 2019). "I'm forty today, which is blowing my mind & warping the fabric of time and space..." (Tweet). Retrieved March 3, 2019 – via Twitter.
  3. 1 2 "Shimmer #20 Interview: Sam J. Miller". Shimmer Magazine. No. 20. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 "Sam J. Miller: A Better Power". locusmag.com. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  5. ↑ Wolfe, Gary K. (December 1, 2022). Episode 595: The Coode Street Advent Calendar: Sam J. Miller. The Coode Street Podcast (podcast). Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 "Spotlight on: Sam J. Miller, Writer". Locus. August 12, 2016.
  7. ↑ Israel, Adam (February 7, 2012). "Interview: Ted Chiang". Clarion Workshop. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  8. 1 2 "2013 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus. July 13, 2014.
  9. ↑ Holt, Erika (December 2013). "Author Spotlight: Sam J. Miller". Nightmare Magazine. No. 15.
  10. ↑ Tilton, Lois (September 10, 2014). "Lois Tilton reviews Short fiction, early September". Locus.
  11. ↑ Mandelo, Lee (July 22, 2014). "Review of Queering SFF: Wilde Stories 2014, Edited by Steve Berman". Tor.com.
  12. ↑ Dozois, Gardner (November 2015). "Gardnerspace: A Short Fiction Column". Locus. p. 13.
  13. ↑ "The Art of Starving by Sam. J. Miller". HarperCollins. March 5, 2017.
  14. ↑ Miller, Sam J. (March 2, 2017). "#MHYALit: Better Is Not a Place". School Library Journal.
  15. 1 2 "2018 Hugo Awards". Hugo Awards. March 15, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  16. 1 2 "Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book 2018". fantasticfiction.com. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  17. 1 2 "The Art of Starving wins 2017 Andre Norton Nebula Award". Science Fiction Writers of America. August 3, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller. Ecco, $22.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-268482-0". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  19. ↑ Mason, Everdeen (April 5, 2018). "Review: Best science fiction and fantasy books out this month". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 11, 2026.
  21. ↑ "The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved October 11, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Boys, Beasts & Men". Tachyon Publications. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  23. ↑ Boys, Beasts & Men – via NetGalley.
  24. ↑ "Paula Guran Reviews Boys, Beasts & Men by Sam J. Miller". Locus Magazine. Retrieved October 11, 2026.
  25. 1 2 "2023 World Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus. Retrieved October 22, 2026.
  26. 1 2 "2023 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. June 24, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  27. ↑ "Red Star Hustle / Apprehension". USA Today. Retrieved October 11, 2026.
  28. ↑ "Our 33 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025". Lit Hub. Retrieved October 11, 2026.
  29. ↑ "Asimov's 30th Annual Readers' Award Poll Finalists". locusmag.com. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  30. ↑ year based on official award year
  31. 1 2 3 4 "Sam J. Miller: Awards Summary". Science Fiction Awards Database. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  32. ↑ "2014 Nebula Awards Winners". Locus. June 6, 2015.
  33. ↑ "2015 Campbell and Sturgeon Awards Finalists". Locus. May 11, 2015.
  34. ↑ "2015 Nebula Awards Ballot". Locus. February 21, 2016.
  35. ↑ "Award summary for Sam J. Miller". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. March 5, 2017.
  36. ↑ Liptak, Andrew (February 20, 2016), "This year's Nebula Award nominees are incredibly diverse — read some onlin", The Verge
  37. ↑ "2018 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced". fantastic-arts.org. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  38. ↑ "2018 Locus Award Winners". locus.mag. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  39. ↑ "2018 Nebula Awards". nebulas.sfwa.org. Retrieved 25 April 2026.
  40. ↑ "Sam J. Miller Wins 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award". File 770. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  41. ↑ "Announcing the 2020 Locus Awards Winners". reactormag.com. Retrieved June 1, 2026.
  42. ↑ "2021 Nebula Awards". nebulas.sfwa.org. Retrieved 25 April 2026.
  43. ↑ "2022 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. June 25, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  44. ↑ "2026 Locus Award Winners". Locus Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-31.
  45. ↑ Winner, Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018.
  46. ↑ Tabler, Elizabeth. "INTERVIEW: with authors Mary Robinette Kowal and Sam J. Miller". Grimdark Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-17.
  47. ↑ Short stories unless otherwise noted.
  48. ↑ Miller, Sam J. (October 18, 2017). "The Future of Hunger in the Age of Programmable Matter". Tor.com. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  49. ↑ "Last Gods". Clarkesworld Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  50. ↑ "Darkness Metastatic". Nightmare Magazine. January 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2026
  51. ↑ "Tyrannosaurus Hex". Uncanny Magazine. January 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2026
  52. ↑ "Feral Arcade Children of the American Northeast". The Southwest Review. August 2021. Retrieved 2026-05-17.
  53. ↑ "If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak". The Dark Magazine. July 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  54. ↑ "Courtney Lovecraft's Book of the Dead". Nightmare Magazine. October 2025. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  55. ↑ "The Cinema of Babel". Uncanny Magazine. July 2026. Retrieved 2026-08-28.