Sarah Monette is an American novelist and short story author writing mostly in the genres of fantasy and horror. She was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and she began writing at the age of 12. In 2004 she earned a PhD in English literature, specializing in Renaissance Drama and writing her dissertation on ghosts in English Renaissance revenge tragedy. She double-majored in Classics and Literature (a cross-departmental program between French, English, and Comparative Literature) in college. She is currently teaching a course on 17th century literature and lives in Wisconsin.
She won the Spectrum award in 2003 for her short story "Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland." Her first novel, Mélusine was published by Ace Books in August 2005, earning starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist and a place in Locus's Recommended Reading list for 2005. The sequel, The Virtu, followed in July 2006, also earning starred reviews and making Locus's Recommended Reading lists for 2006. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, Alchemy, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, among other venues, and have received four Honorable Mentions from The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin Grant, and Kelly Link. Her poem "Night Train: Heading West" appeared in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror XIX, and a story she co-wrote with 2005 Campbell winner Elizabeth Bear, "The Ile of Dogges," appeared in The Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois, in 2007. She also has been published in the award-winning Postscripts.
In 2007, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.
In November 2009 it was announced on her weblog that her forthcoming work, The Goblin Emperor, would be released under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.