Sonya Taaffe

Sonya Taaffe is a Massachusetts-based author of short fiction and poetry. She grew up in Arlington and Lexington, MA and graduated from Brandeis University in 2003 where she received a BA and MA in Classical Studies. She also received an MA in Classical Studies from Yale University in 2008.
Taaffe was first published in 2001, with "Shade and Shadow" in "Not One of Us", "Turn of the Century, Jack-in-the-Green" in "Mythic Delirium", and "Constellations, Conjunctions" in "Maelstrom Speculative Fiction".
Taaffe often writes for the small press magazine Not One of Us, for whose website she is the contributing editor. She served as a co-editor in the Poetry Department of Strange Horizons magazine alongside A.J. Odasso and Romie Stott until 2016.
Taaffe proposed the name Vanth for the moon of dwarf planet Orcus to its discoverer Mike Brown, which was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Influences.
Among her influences, Taaffe highlights Angela Carter for impressing her with "language that voluptuous, overblown, and precise all at the same time." She also lists Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tanith Lee, Patricia McKillip, Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, Jane Yolen, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Kathe Koja, and Peter Beagle.
Awards.
Taaffe's poem "Matlacihuatl's Gift" won the Rhysling Award in 2003, and her poem "Follow Me Home" appeared in "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection". Her short story "Retrospective" was shortlisted for the Speculative Literature Foundation's Fountain Award in 2004 and her poem "Muse" placed 2nd for the Dwarf Stars Award in 2008. Taaffe's collection "Forget the Sleepless Shores" was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Speculative Fiction.