Gail Carriger Bio

Obligatory Bio

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and millions of books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes book hugs - comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, or sci-fi (and cozy queer joy as GL Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. gailcarriger.com

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Medium Bio (Bursting with Accolades)

Gail Carriger writes books that are hugs, mostly comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, and sci-fi (plus cozy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). These include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, Tinkered Stars, and San Andreas Shifter series for adults, and the Finishing School and Tinkered Starsong series for young adults. Also nonfiction: The Heroine’s Journey. She is published in many languages, has over a million books in print, over a dozen New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Romantic Times.

Her first book, Soulless, made Audible’s Best list, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, an IndieBound Notable, and a Locus Recommended Read. She has received the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Prix Julia Verlanger, the Elbakin Award, the Steampunk Chronicle‘s Reader’s Choice Award, and a Starburner Award. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, cephalopods, and tea. Get early access, specials, and exclusives via her website gailcarriger.com

Long Bio (ALL the Things)

New York Times bestselling author and ex-archaeologist Gail (G.L.) Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in higher learning, a fondness for cephalopods, and a chronic tea habit. She then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag.

Miss Gail’s novels have been published in dozens of languages and have made the New York Times, USA Today, and Locus Bestseller lists multiple times. With over a million books in print, her NYT listings include Mass Market, Hardcover, eBook, Combined Print & eBook, Young Adult, Children’s Series, and #1 in Manga. They have garnered starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Romantic Times. She has received the Prix Julia Verlanger, the Elbakin Award, the Steampunk Chronicle‘s Reader’s Choice Award, and a Starburner Award.

Her debut novel, Soulless, won the ALA’s Alex Award and was nominated for a Compton Crook and Locus Award, and the Prix des Imaginales. It made Audible.com’s Best List, and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, IndieBound Notable, Locus Recommended Read, and a Finalist for the 2009 PEARL Award. Gail is still trying to recover from the shock.

Gail’s wildly popular steampunk Parasolverse contains multiple series. The Parasol Protectorate features a proper Victorian spinster who has no soul. It has been turned into a graphic novel and optioned for animation. Her YA Finishing School series follows a young lady secretly recruited to an all-girls school for spies. Her Delightfully Deadly novellas follow these young ladies grown up. In the Custard Protocol a crack (or possibly cracked) dirigible crew get into trouble around the globe on behalf of friends, family, and tea. The Supernatural Society novellas follow popular LBGTQ+ side characters from her Parasolverse as they strike out on their own. And the Claw & Courtship novellas feature werewolves caught up in Georgette Heyer style shenanigans.

As G.L. Carriger, she writes the San Andreas Shifter books depicting a whimsical San Francisco full of adorable queer shape shifters and found family. She also has a sci-fi universe, the Tinkered Stars, in which she has written a cozy mystery on a space station, The 5th Gender, a Heinlein-style space adventure first contact story, Crudrat, and a space opera trilogy, Tinkered Starsong, about a barista who is recruited to become an entertainment god… no, literally.

She has also written nonfiction, The Heroine’s Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture.

You can find Gail through her agent, Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency or via her website gailcarriger.com. She has a ridiculously silly newsletter, The Monthly Chirrup and a fun podcast about travel, 20 Minute Delay.

Gail’s bio as if written by Mangnall in the 1830s

“Carriger, a comic writer from the Colonies, born in squalor, 197?; died, ?. Famous for her outrageous characters and questionable inclination to dandify. The celebrated Chubbiest of Foqoures was her cat, and, upon said cat’s decease, Carriger engaged the affections of Lilliput la Legume. Carriger’s works are numerous. She had a peculiar mind, in a top heavy body.”

~ Mangnall’s Questions (the update), 1830 ~ 2015

Author Photos

Gail Carriger head shots available for use by the press. Please attribute photographer.

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by Vanessa Applegate
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by Robert Andruszko
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by Vanessa Applegate

Gail’s Interviews

Here is a Spotify playlist featuring some of Gail’s audio interviews over the years.

Here is a YouTube playlist of some of Gail’s interviews, speaking gigs, and events.