Joanne Merriam
Joanne Merriam is a science fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her debut novel, Aether and Ego (Inanna Publications, 2026), is a steampunk retelling of Pride and Prejudice with the addition of space travel, dogs, and accidental death.
A former staff member of WFNS (1997-2001), she used to write a regular column for WFNS’ Eastword called “Caught in the Web.” In 2001, she left her position as Executive Assistant of WFNS to travel Canada by train, and then parts of the Northeastern and Southern United States. Her book of poetry, The Glaze from Breaking (Stride, 2005; Upper Rubber Boot, 2011), was written, in part, about those travels. In 2004, she immigrated to the USA, residing primarily in Nashville, Tennessee. From 2011 to 2019, she was the Publisher at Upper Rubber Boot Books, which is now on permanent hiatus. URB published numerous anthologies, perhaps most notably the first English-language anthology of solarpunk, Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation (eds. Phoebe Wagner and Bronté Wieland). She became an American citizen in 2019, and returned to Nova Scotia in 2024.
Her poetry and fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines and periodicals including The Antigonish Review, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Canadian Literature, Feux chalins, The Fiddlehead, Pottersfield Portfolio, and Strange Horizons, as well as the anthologies Ice: new writing on hockey and To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax.
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
- Aether and Ego. Toronto, ON: Inanna Publications, 2026. ISBN 978-1-83421-026-1.
- Edited for Upper Rubber Boot Books: Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good (2018, ISBN 978-1-937794-85-9); The Museum of All Things Awesome And That Go Boom (2016, ISBN 978-1-937794-47-7); Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up To No Good (with H. L. Nelson, 2015, ISBN 978-1-937794-46-0); and How to Live on Other Planets: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens (2015, ISBN 978-1-937794-32-3).
- The Glaze from Breaking. Exeter, England: Stride Publications, 2005. ISBN 1-905024-00-2.
SELECTED SHORT FICTION
- “The Farmer.” 50-Word Stories, 13 August 2025.
- “Easy Bake.” The Baltimore Review, Winter 2025.
- “Sundowning.” Strange Horizons, 22 February 2010.
- “Little Ambushes.” Escape Pod, 22 October 2009.
SELECTED POETRY
- Three erasures: “alienation echo,” “Competing with churches for the imagination of present-day” and “metamorphosis (chrysalis).” manywor(l)ds, Issue 11, 15 February 2026.
- “skyward asphalt.” Haikuniverse, 30 June 2025.
- “Throwing Signs” and “Tighten to Bruise.” Pictura Journal, April 2025.
- “Heatwave” with Roger Dutcher. Strange Horizons, 19 August 2019.
- “Thirteen Scifaiku for Blackbirds.” StarShipSofa: The Audio Science Fiction Magazine, Feb 17, 2016.
- “Getting Wet from Head to Toe” and “Underfoot on Barrington Street.” St. John’s, NL, Canada: Riddle Fence #10. Fall 2011. pp. 26-27. ISSN 1913-7265.
- “5 a.m. on the Northwest Arm.” To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax. Edited by Sue MacLeod. Halifax, NS: Halifax Regional Municipality, 2005. p. 16. ISBN 0-9687262-3-2.
- Honourable Mention, Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, for “The Candy Aisle.”
- “Auto Biographies,” Winner of the July 2012 Goodreads Poetry Contest, 30 June 2012.
- Winner, “Deaths on Other Planets,” Asimov’s Science Fiction‘s Readers’ Awards for Best Poem of 2008.
- First Place winner, “The Rainy Season,” Strange Horizons 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards for Poetry.
- Third Place winner, “Walking Hibernation,” Strange Horizons 2004 Readers’ Choice Awards for Fiction.