Fonda Lee

Fonda Lee (born March 10, 1979) is a Canadian-American^[1] author of speculative fiction. She is best known for writing The Green Bone Saga, the first of which, Jade City, won the 2018 World Fantasy Award and was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time magazine.^[2] The Green Bone Saga was also included on NPR's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".^[3]

Fonda Lee
Lee in 2024
Born	(1979-03-10) March 10, 1979 (age 46) Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Author
Education	Stanford University (MBA)
Genre	Speculative fiction
Notable works	The Green Bone Saga
Website
fondalee.com

Biography

Lee was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and currently resides in Portland, Oregon in the United States.^[1][4] She attended Stanford University where she earned her MBA.^[4] Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a corporate strategist.^[1] Lee is a martial artist and has earned black belts in karate and kung fu.^[1][4]

Career

Lee's debut young adult science fiction novel, Zeroboxer, was published by Flux Books and nominated for the 2015 Andre Norton Award. It received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, which described it as "top-notch science fiction and a great sports novel too".^[5][6]

Lee's 2017 short story "Old Souls", was published in Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy, and was nominated for the 2018 Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction and the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. Lee's career continued as she published the Exo duology for young adults in 2017 and 2018; both novels were well-received critically.

Her debut novel for adults, Jade City, was the first in The Green Bone Saga. It was published by Orbit Books in 2017 to critical acclaim. Jade City won the 2018 World Fantasy Award and Aurora Award for Best Novel, and was a finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel and 2018 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Jade City was included on Time magazine's list "The Best Fantasy Books of All Time".^[2] The second in the series, Jade War, published in 2019, was a finalist for the Locus Award, Dragon Award, Aurora Award, and Ignyte Award. The third volume of the series, Jade Legacy, was published in 2021 and also received acclaim, becoming a finalist for the 2022 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the 2022 Aurora Award for Best Novel, and a nomination for the Dragon Award for Best Novel. The Green Bone Saga as a whole was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series and was included on NPR's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".^[3] In 2022, Subterranean Press published Lee's standalone novella set prior to the events of The Green Bone Saga entitled The Jade Setter of Janloon.

In 2020, it was announced that a TV series based on Jade City was being developed at Peacock, with Lee serving as a consulting producer.^[7] In July 2022, it was announced that Peacock had canceled the project, but Lee shared on Twitter that the team were seeking another service to take it up.^[8]

Lee's fantasy novella Untethered Sky was published by Tor.com in April 2023.

In December 2022, Lee announced that she was collaborating with Shannon Lee (no relation), the daughter of the late actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, on a series of young adult fantasy novels inspired by Bruce Lee's writings called the Guardian of the Scroll duology.^[9] The first book was published in January 2025 by Wednesday Books.

In March 2023, Orbit Books announced that it had acquired the rights to Fonda Lee's "cyberpunk samurai space opera" novel The Last Contract of Isako, which is scheduled for winter 2025.^[10]

Awards

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2015	Zeroboxer	Andre Norton Award	—	Finalist	[11]
2017	Exo	Andre Norton Award	—	Finalist	[12]
	Jade City	Nebula Award	Novel	Finalist	[12]
2018	Exo	Aurora Award	YA Novel	Won	[13]
	Jade City	Aurora Award	Novel	Won	[13]
		Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Finalist	[14]
		World Fantasy Award	Novel	Won	[15]
	“Old Souls”	Aurora Award	Short Fiction	Finalist	[13]
		World Fantasy Awards	Short Fiction	Finalist	[15]
2019	Cross Fire	Aurora Award	YA Novel	Won	[16]
		Locus Award	Young Adult Book	Finalist	[17]
2020	"I (28M) Created a Deepfake Girlfriend"	Locus Award	Short Story	Finalist	[18]
	Jade War	Aurora Award	Novel	Finalist	[19]
		Dragon Awards	Fantasy Novel	Nominated	[20]
		Ignyte Awards	Novel – Adult	Finalist	[21]
		Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Finalist	[18]
2022	Jade Legacy	Aurora Award	Novel	Won	[22]
		Dragon Awards	Fantasy Novel	Nominated	[23]
		Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Won	[24]
	The Green Bone Saga	Hugo Award	Series	Finalist	[25]

Bibliography

Standalone Novels

• —— (2015). Zeroboxer (paperback 1st ed.). Flux Books. ISBN 9780738743387.

Exo Series

• —— (2017). Exo (hardcover 1st ed.). Scholastic. ISBN 9780545933438.
• —— (2018). Cross Fire (hardcover 1st ed.). Scholastic. ISBN 9781338139099.

The Green Bone Saga

Prequels

1. The Jade Setter of Janloon (Subterranean Press, 2022) – standalone prequel novella
2. Jade Shards (Subterranean Press, 2023) – collection of 4 prequel short stories

Main series

1. Jade City (Orbit Books, 2017)
2. Jade War (Orbit Books, 2019)
3. Jade Legacy (Orbit Books, 2021)

Short fiction

• "Universal Print" , first published in Crossed Genres, issue #26 (2015)
• "Spectral" , first published in Perihelion (2016)
• "Old Souls", first published in Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy (2017)
• "Welcome to the Legion of Six", first published in The Overcast, issue #102 (2019)
• "I (28M) Created a Deepfake Girlfriend and Now My Parents Think We're Getting Married" , first published in MIT Technology Review (2020).
• "The Eternal Cocktail Party of the Damned" , first published in Uncanny Magazine, issue #46 (2022)
• Untethered Sky, novella, Tor.com (2023)

See also

• List of fantasy authors