The River Has Roots

Amal El-Mohtar is a poet and speculative fiction author, born in Canada to Lebanese immigrant parents. Except for two years spent in Lebanon as a child, she has lived in Ottawa her entire life. El-Mohtar is a prolific writer of speculative short stories and poetry, as well as the editor of the fantastical poetry magazine Goblin Fruit. She has received the Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem three times, and her short story “Seasons of Glass and Iron” won the Nebula, Locus, and Hugo Awards in 2016. She released her collection of short fiction, The Honey Month, in 2010 and has a second short fiction collection, Seasons of Glass and Iron, forthcoming in 2026. However, she is perhaps best known for her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, co-written with Max Gladstone. This is a romantic science fiction epistolary novella that swept the science fiction/fantasy awards season in 2019, winning the Nebula, Locus, Hugo, BSFA, and Aurora Awards for Best Novella/Shorter Fiction (“Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: Letter Space.” Locus Magazine, 10 Feb. 2020).

El-Mohtar credits her Lebanese descent with influencing and inspiring many themes in her work, especially in The River Has Roots.