C. J.

Cherryh

Article

Talk

Read

Edit

View history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C. J. Cherryh

Cherryh at NorWesCon in 2006

Cherryh at NorWesCon in 2006

Born Carolyn Janice Cherry

September 1, 1942 (age 80)

St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Pen name C. J. Cherryh

Occupation Novelist, short story author, essayist, high school teacher

Nationality American

Period 1976–present

Genre Science fiction, fantasy

Notable works Alliance–Union universe, Foreigner series

Notable awards Hugo Award, Locus Award, Prometheus Award

Spouse Jane Fancher

(m. 2014)

[1][2]

Website

cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/

Carolyn Janice Cherry (born September 1, 1942), better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an
American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s,
including the Hugo Award-winning novels Downbelow Station (1981) and Cyteen (1988), both set in her
Alliance–Union universe, and her Foreigner series. She is known for worldbuilding, depicting fictional
realms with great realism supported by vast research in history, language, psychology, and archeology.

Cherryh (pronounced "Cherry") appended a silent "h" to her real name because her first editor, Donald
A. Wollheim, felt that "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer.[3] She used only her initials, C.
J., to disguise that she was female at a time when the majority of science fiction authors were male.[4]

The author has an asteroid, 77185 Cherryh, named after her. Referring to this honor, the asteroid's
discoverers wrote of Cherryh: "She has challenged us to be worthy of the stars by imagining how
mankind might grow to live among them."[5]

Biography

This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by
adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced
must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.

Find sources: "C. J. Cherryh" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2014) (Learn how
and when to remove this template message)

Cherryh was born in 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri and raised primarily in Lawton, Oklahoma. She began
writing stories at the age of ten when she became frustrated with the cancellation of her favorite TV
show, Flash Gordon. In 1964, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin from the University of
Oklahoma (Phi Beta Kappa), with academic specializations in archaeology, mythology, and the history of
engineering. In 1965, she received a Master of Arts degree in classics from Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Maryland, where she was a Woodrow Wilson fellow.
After graduation, Cherryh taught Latin, Ancient Greek, the classics, and ancient history at John Marshall
High School in the Oklahoma City public school system. While her job was teaching Latin, her passion
was the history, religion, and culture of Rome and Ancient Greece. During the summers, she would
conduct student tours of the ancient ruins in England, France, Spain, and Italy. In her spare time, she
would write, using the mythology of Rome and Greece as plots for her stories of the future. Cherryh did
not follow the professional path typical of science fiction writers at the time, which was to first publish
short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines and then progress to novels; she did not consider
writing short stories until she had had several novels published.

Cherryh wrote novels in her spare time away from teaching and submitted these manuscripts directly for
publication. Initially, she met with little success; indeed various publishers lost manuscripts she had
submitted. She was thus forced to retype them from her own carbon copies, time-consuming but
cheaper than paying for photocopying. (Using carbon paper to make at least one copy of a manuscript
was standard practice until the advent of the personal computer.)

Cherryh's breakthrough came in 1975 when Donald A. Wollheim purchased the two manuscripts she had
submitted to DAW Books, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. About the former, Cherryh stated in an
interview on Amazing Stories:

It was the first time a book really found an ending and really worked, because I had made contact with
Don Wollheim at DAW, found him interested, and was able to write for a specific editor whose body of
work and type of story I knew. It was a good match. It was a set of characters I'd invented when I was,
oh, about thirteen. So it was an old favorite of my untold stories, and ended up being the first in print.[6]

The two novels were published in 1976, Gate of Ivrel preceding Brothers of Earth by several months
(although she had completed and submitted Brothers of Earth first). The books won her immediate
recognition and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1977.

Although not all of her works have been published by DAW Books, during this early period Cherryh
developed a strong relationship with the Wollheim family and their publishing company, frequently
travelling to New York City and staying with the Wollheims in their Queens family home. Other
companies who have published her novels include Baen Books, HarperCollins, Warner Books, and
Random House (under its Del Rey Books imprint). She published six additional novels in the late 1970s.
In 1979, her short story "Cassandra" won the Best Short Story Hugo, and she quit teaching to write full-
time. She has since won the Hugo Award for Best Novel twice, first for Downbelow Station in 1982 and
then again for Cyteen in 1989.

In addition to developing her own fictional universes, Cherryh has contributed to several shared world
anthologies, including Thieves' World, Heroes in Hell, Elfquest, Witch World, Magic in Ithkar, and the
Merovingen Nights series, which she edited. Her writing has encompassed a variety of science fiction
and fantasy subgenres and includes a few short works of non-fiction. Her books have been translated
into Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish. She has also translated several published
works of fiction from French into English.

She now lives near Spokane, Washington with her wife,[1][2] the science fiction/fantasy author and
artist Jane Fancher. She enjoys skating and travelling and regularly makes appearances at science fiction
conventions.

Her brother David A. Cherry is a science fiction and fantasy artist.[7]

Writing style

Cherryh uses a writing technique she has variously labeled "very tight limited third person", "intense
third person", and "intense internal" voice.[8] In this approach, the only things the writer narrates are
those that the viewpoint character specifically notices or thinks about.[8] The narration may not mention
important features of the environment or situation with which the character is already familiar, even
though these things might be of interest to the reader, because the character does not think about them
owing to their familiarity.

World building

Cherryh's works depict fictional worlds with great realism supported by her strong background in
languages, history, archaeology, and psychology. In her introduction to Cherryh's first book, Andre
Norton compared the effect of the work to Tolkien's: "Never since reading The Lord of the Rings have I
been so caught up in any tale as I have been in Gate of Ivrel." Another reviewer commented, "Her blend
of science and folklore gives the novels an intellectual depth comparable to Tolkien or Gene Wolfe."[9]
Cherryh creates believable alien cultures, species, and perspectives, causing the reader to reconsider
basic assumptions about human nature. Her worlds have been praised as complex and realistic because
she presents them through implication rather than explication.[10] She describes the difficulties of
translating/expressing concepts between differing languages. This is best demonstrated in both the
Chanur and Foreigner series.

She has described the process she uses to create alien societies for her fiction as being akin to asking a
series of questions, and letting the answers to these questions dictate various parameters of the alien
culture. In her view, "culture is how biology responds to its environment and makes its living conditions
better." Some of the issues she considers critical to take into account in detailing an intelligent alien race
are:[11]

The physical environment in which the species lives

The location and nature of the race's dwellings, including the spatial relationships between those
dwellings

The species' diet, method(s) of obtaining and consuming food, and cultural practices regarding the
preparation of meals and eating (if any)

Processes which the aliens use to share knowledge

Customs and ideas regarding death, dying, the treatment of the race's dead, and the afterlife (if any)

Metaphysical issues related to self-definition and the aliens' concept of the fictional universe they
inhabit

Major themes

Main article: Themes of C. J. Cherryh's works

Her protagonists often attempt to uphold existing social institutions and norms in the service of the
greater good while the antagonists often attempt to exploit, subvert or radically alter the predominant
social order for selfish gain. She uses the theme of the outsider finding his (or her) place in society and
how individuals interact with The Other. A number of Cherryh's novels focus on military and political
themes. One underlying theme of her work is an exploration of gender roles. Her characters reveal both
strengths and weaknesses regardless of their gender, although her female protagonists are portrayed as
especially capable and determined, and many of her male characters are portrayed as damaged, abused,
or otherwise vulnerable.
Works

Main article: C. J. Cherryh bibliography

Her career began with publication of her first books in 1976, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. Since
that time, she has published over 80 novels, short-story compilations, with continuing production as her
blog attests.[12] Ms. Cherryh has received the Hugo, Locus, and Prometheus Awards for some of her
novels. Her novels are divided into various spheres, focusing mostly around the Alliance–Union universe,
The Chanur novels, the Foreigner series, and her fantasy novels.[13]

Scholarship

The Cherryh Odyssey (2004, ISBN 0-8095-1070-7; ISBN 0-8095-1071-5), edited by Edward Carmien,

compiles a dozen essays by academic and professional voices discussing the literary life and career of
Cherryh. A bibliography is included.

The Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at Eastern New Mexico University contains a collection of
Cherryh's manuscripts and notes for scholarly research.[14]

Military Command in Women's Science Fiction: C.J. Cherryh's Signy Mallory (2000), Part 1,[15] Part
2[16] by Camille Bacon-Smith.

"Animal Transference: A 'Mole-like Progression' in C.J. Cherry" (2011) by Lynn Turner, in Mosaic: a
journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature, 44.3, pp. 163–175.[17]

Awards and honors

Award Category Work Result[18]

British SF Award Novel Cyteen (1988) Nominated

Hugo Award Novel The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978) Nominated

Downbelow Station (1981) Won

The Pride of Chanur (1982) Nominated

Cuckoo's Egg (1985) Nominated

Cyteen (1988) Won

Novella "The Scapegoat" (1985) Nominated

Short Story "Cassandra" (1978) Won

Locus Award Novel The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978) Nominated

Fantasy Novel The Paladin (1988) Nominated

Rusalka (1989) Nominated

Fortress of Eagles (1998) Nominated

Fortress of Owls (1999) Nominated

SF Novel The Pride of Chanur (1982) Nominated

Chanur's Venture (1984) Nominated

Cyteen (1988) Won

Rimrunners (1989) Nominated

Invader (1995) Nominated

Finity's End (1997) Nominated

Defender (2001) Nominated

Visitor (2016) Nominated

Collection Sunfall (1981) Nominated

Visible Light (1986) Nominated

Novella "Ealdwood" (1981) Nominated

The Scapegoat (1984) Nominated

Novelette "The Haunted Tower" (1981) Nominated

"Willow" (1982) Nominated

Short Story "The Only Death in the City" (1981) Nominated

Nebula Award Novel The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978) Nominated

Short Story "Cassandra" (1978) Nominated

World Fantasy Award Novella "Ealdwood" (1981) Nominated

"Gwydion and the Dragon" (1991) Nominated

Cherryh has also received the following honors:

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer – 1977

NESFA Edward E. Smith Memorial Award (The Skylark) – 1988

Guest of Honor at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore

Asteroid 77185 Cherryh, discovered March 20, 2001 and named in her honor.

Oklahoma Book Awards – Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award[19] 2005

Guest of Honor at FenCon IX in Dallas/Fort Worth on September 21–23, 2012.[20]

SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award – 2016[21]

Prometheus Award for Best Novel 2020 —Alliance Rising[22]

Robert A. Heinlein Award – 2021[23]

Organizations

Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA) – member (granted for her "Morgaine" novels)

National Space Society – seat on the Board of Advisors[24]

Endangered Language Fund – seat on the Board of Directors[25]

References

Fancher, Jane (May 5, 2014). "Da Big Secrud!". Retrieved May 7, 2014.

Fancher, Jane (May 27, 2014). "Wedding Pix!". Retrieved June 22, 2014.

rec.arts.sf.written FAQ. Pronunciation of Cherryh.

Gunn, James (2004). "Introduction: What We Do For Love". In Carmien, Edward (ed.). The Cherryh
Odyssey. Borgo Press. pp. 19–20. ISBN 978-0809510702.
JPL Small-Body Database Browser Asteroid 77185 Cherryh.

Troughton, R.K. (February 19, 2014). "Interview with Award-Winning Author C. J. Cherryh". Amazing
Stories. Retrieved August 5, 2014.

https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cherry_david_a

"C.J. Cherryh Short Story Essay Novel Writer". EncycloCentral. Archived from the original on August 11,
2007. Retrieved February 20, 2008.

"C. J. Cherryh, Science Fiction, and the Soft Sciences". Dancing Badger. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

"Brilliant Literature is Unearthed in Cherryh's Novels". Los Angeles Daily News. November 29, 1987.
Retrieved April 10, 2012. "CJ Cherryh will be the guest of honor at LOSCON 14, this year's annual
convention for Los Angeles-area science fiction and fantasy fans."

Cherryh, C. J. "Worldbuilding". C. J. Cherryh homepage. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

Cherryh, C. J. "The Journal: Progress Report". C. J. Cherryh homepage. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cherryh_c_j

"Special Collections". Eastern New Mexico University. Retrieved December 18, 2017.

Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Military Command in Women's Science Fiction: C.J. Cherryh's Signy Mallory (part
1)". The Swan. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Military Command in Women's Science Fiction: C.J. Cherryh's Signy Mallory (part
2)". The Swan. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

Turner, Lynn (September 2011). "Animal Transference: A 'Mole-like Progression' in C.J. Cherry". Mosaic: a
journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature. 44 (3): 163–175. Retrieved February 5, 2013.

"C. J. Cherryh Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Retrieved
September 24, 2021.

"Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award". Oklahoma Department of Libraries. 2005. Archived from
the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.

"FenCon IX archive site". FenCon. Archived from the original on May 16, 2012.

"C.J. Cherryh Named SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master". SFWA. February 17, 2016. Retrieved February
19, 2016.

"Prometheus Awards". Libertarian Futurist Society. Retrieved July 10, 2020.

"Robert A. Heinlein Award". Retrieved March 2, 2021.

"Board of Advisors". National Space Society. Retrieved June 18, 2007.

"Endangered Language Fund". Retrieved December 29, 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to C. J. Cherryh.

Wikiquote has quotations related to C. J. Cherryh.

Official website Edit this at Wikidata, Blog and E-Book store run by Cherryh

Bibliography with notes at SFFchronicles

Interview at SFFWorld.com

C. J. Cherryh at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

C. J. Cherryh at the Internet Book List

Bibliography on SciFan

Works by C. J. Cherryh at Open Library Edit this at Wikidata

Bibliography, with book covers on FantasticFiction

Complete list of sci-fi award wins and nominations by novel

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Cherryh, Carolyn J.

C. J. Cherryh at Library of Congress Authorities, with 88 catalog records

vte

C. J. Cherryh

vte
Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Awards (SFWA Grand Masters)

vte

Hugo Award for Best Novel

vte

Hugo Award for Best Short Story

vte

Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

Authority control Edit this at Wikidata

Categories:

C. J. Cherryh1942 birthsLiving peopleAmerican science fiction writersAmerican fantasy writers20th-

century American novelists21st-century American novelists20th-century American women writers21st-
century American women writers21st-century American short story writers20th-century American short
story writersHugo Award-winning writersJohn W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winnersWomen
science fiction and fantasy writersJohns Hopkins University alumniNovelists from OklahomaWriters from
Spokane, WashingtonUniversity of Oklahoma alumniWriters from St. LouisPeople from Lawton,
OklahomaAmerican women short story writersAmerican LGBT novelistsLGBT people from MissouriLGBT
people from OklahomaAmerican LGBT writersAmerican women novelistsSFWA Grand MastersNovelists
from MissouriNovelists from Washington (state)Pseudonymous women writers