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Samantha Mills

サマンサ・ミルズ

Samantha Mills

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
California, U.S.
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Southern California

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Short story writer, Archivist
Active Years
2018-2025
Nominations
BSFA Best Shorter Fiction Longlist (Strange Waters, 2018), BSFA Best Shorter Fiction Longlist (Rabbit Test, 2022), World Fantasy Award—Novel Nomination (The Wings Upon Her Back, 2025)

Education

University of California, Santa Cruz
Pre- and Early Modern Literature
Degree: B.A.
Country: United States
San Jose State University
Information and Library Science
Degree: Master's
Country: United States

Awards

Locus Award for Best Short Story
2023
Work: Rabbit Test
Category: Short Story
Organization: Locus Magazine
Result: Won
Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
2023
Work: Rabbit Test
Category: Short Story
Result: Won
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
2023
Work: Rabbit Test
Category: Short Story
Organization: World Science Fiction Society
Result: Won
Nebula Award for Best Short Story
2023
Work: Rabbit Test
Category: Short Story
Organization: SFWA
Result: Won

Awards & Nominations

Nebula Award 1 appearances
  1. Edition 58 (2023) Winner
    Work: Rabbit Test

    A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore at the wrong moment, and from that strange premise the story moves toward abortion rights and the dislocations of time. It keeps its oddness intact while building a quiet urgency around choice and bodily autonomy.

    The same shoreline keeps returning, but the story keeps slipping into another time.

    time travelbodily autonomyrightswomenscience fiction

Works

Major Works

The Wings Upon Her Back

2024 Science fiction

A science fiction tale set in the war-torn city of Radezhda, where five sects serve five gods. Alternates between Winged Zemolai's youth training as a warrior and her disgraced adulthood. Explores fascism, abuse, and religious zealotry.

FascismAbuseReligionFemale protagonists

Rabbit Test

2022 Science fiction

In a near-future society where women's rights are limited, pregnancies are monitored, and abortions illegal, follows Grace and later her daughter Olivia. Provides history of pregnancy tests and abortion.

Women's rightsPregnancy surveillanceAbortionDystopia

Bibliography

  • The Wings Upon Her Back (2024)
  • Rabbit Test (Uncanny Magazine, 2022)
  • Anchorage (Uncanny Magazine, 2020)
  • The Limits of Magic (Apparition Literary Magazine, 2020)
  • Mama Cascade (Deep Magic, 2020)
  • Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil (Translunar Travelers Lounge, 2020)
  • Four of Seven (Escape Pod, 2019)
  • Laugh Lines (Daily Science Fiction, 2019)
  • One Part Per Billion (Diabolical Plots, 2019)
  • Adrianna in Pomegranate (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2019)
  • Strange Waters (Strange Horizons, 2018)
  • The Gestational Cycle of Flies in a Cupboard (LampLight, 2018)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Incandescent proseDeep thematic exploration
Recurring Motifs
Power and oppressionReligion and faithImpacts of abuse

Legacy

Won Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon Awards for short story 'Rabbit Test' (Hugo amid controversy). Debut novel 'The Wings Upon Her Back' universally acclaimed and nominated for World Fantasy Award. Rising star in SF/F.

Trivia

  • Wrote her first short story 'What Hapend March Ninth!!' at age seven.
  • 'Unwon' her Hugo Award due to 2023 nomination controversy.