John Wiswell

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-08-14

John Wiswell was born September 4, 1981, and grew up in Mount Kisco, New York, graduating from Bennington College in 2005. He is an American science fiction and fantasy author who began publishing short fiction in 2010 with "Alligators by Twitter." His work is known for making outlandish and unsettling concepts feel familiar, often exploring disability metaphors while maintaining a lighthearted and clever tone. He has published in prestigious venues including Nature, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Uncanny Magazine. DAW Books acquired the rights to his first two fantasy novels in 2022. His debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In (2024), described as "a creepy, charming monster-slaying sapphic romance" told from the monster's perspective, won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and was a Hugo Award finalist. His short story "Open House on Haunted Hill" won the 2020 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. A follow-up novel, Wearing the Lion, was announced for 2025. Wiswell identifies as asexual and aromantic and lives with a neuromuscular syndrome and other disabilities, which directly inform his fiction's recurring focus on marginalized and monstrous protagonists.

Universe(s)

Books

• Someone You Can Build a Nest In (2024) · Someone You Can Build a Nest In Core Canon
• Wearing the Lion (2025) · Wearing the Lion Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 2 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 4 (2 won, 2 finalist mention)

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