Pat Murphy (writer)

Patrice Ann 'Pat' Murphy (born 1955) is an award-winning American science writer and author of science fiction and fantasy novels.

Murphy was born on March 9, 1955 in Washington state.

Murphy has used the ideas of the absurdist pseudophilosophy pataphysics in some of her writings. Along with Lisa Goldstein and Michaela Roessner, she has formed The Brazen Hussies to promote their work. Together with Karen Joy Fowler, Murphy co-founded the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1991.

With her second novel, The Falling Woman (1986), she won the Nebula Award, and another Nebula Award in the same year for her novelette, "Rachel in Love." Her short story collection, Points of Departure (1990) won the Philip K. Dick Award, and her 1990 novella, Bones, won the World Fantasy Award in 1991.

She lives in San Francisco and, for more than 20 years, when she was not writing science fiction, she worked at the Exploratorium, San Francisco's museum of science, art, and human perception. There, she published non-fiction as part of the museum staff.

She has a black belt in the martial art kenpō.

Novels

• The Shadow Hunter (1982; partially rewritten and republished in 2002)
• The Falling Woman (1986)
• The City, Not Long After (1989)
• Nadya: The Wolf Chronicles (1996)
• There and Back Again (1999)
• Wild Angel (2001)
• Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell (2002)
• The Wild Girls (children's novel) (2007)

Collection

• Points of Departure (1990)
• Women Up to No Good (2013)

Anthologies

• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1 (2005) with Debbie Notkin, Karen Joy Fowler and Jeffrey D. Smith. Anthology of winners of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Tachyon Publications.
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 (2006) with Debbie Notkin, Karen Joy Fowler and Jeffrey D. Smith. Tachyon Publications.
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3 (2007) with Debbie Notkin, Karen Joy Fowler and Jeffrey D. Smith. Tachyon Publications.

Nonfiction

• Exploratopia (2006, ISBN 0-316-61281-2)
• Zap Science: A Scientific Playground in a Book (1997) by John Cassidy, Paul Doherty, & Pat Murphy
• The Science Explorer Out and About (1997) by Pat Murphy, Ellen Klages, and Linda Shore
• The Color of Nature (1996) by Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty
• The Science Explorer (1996) by Pat Murphy, Ellen Klages, and Linda Shore
• By Nature's Design (1993) by Pat Murphy
• Bending Light: An Exploratorium Toolbook (1993) by Pat Murphy
• Explorabook: A Kid's Science Museum in a Book by John Cassidy, Pat Murphy, and Paul Doherty (1991)
• Before and After (1997 travel essay)
• Imaginary Friends (1996 essay)

Miscellaneous

• A Flock of Lawn Flamingos (2001 chapbook)