American · b. 1981
John Wiswell is an American science fiction and fantasy author born in 1981, raised in the area of Mount Kisco, New York, and a graduate of Bennington College. He lives with a neuromuscular disability, and questions of disability, care, and monstrosity run through much of his fiction, typically rendered with a lighthearted, subversive humor. His short story "Open House on Haunted Hill" won the 2021 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and "That Story Isn't the Story" won the 2022 Locus Award for Best Novelette. His debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In (2024), reimagines a monster's origin story as a queer romance and swept the genre awards, winning the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. His second novel, Wearing the Lion (2025), retells the myth of Heracles from the perspective of Hera. Wiswell's fiction regularly appears in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, and other leading speculative fiction venues.