Welcome to Love of Place. Most of my work celebrates our connection to the natural world.

Most recently, my Knocking on Heaven's Door is the winner in the category of science fiction in the 2016 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards and in the category of fiction in the 2016 Arizona Authors Association Awards. A number of reviewers have been enthusiastic, including the website Geeks of Doom, which makes me smile. Not many people know me as a geek of doom! But I am happy to embrace the complexity of my personality.

I'm also so pleased that Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World has been awarded the 2016 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, as well as the 2014 WILLA Award for Creative Nonfiction from Women Writing the West.

My historical fantasy Teresa of the New World won the 2015 Arizona Authors Association Award for best Children's Literature and was a finalist for the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Children's Literature, the WILLA Award for Children's Literature, and the May Sarton Award for Children's Literature.

These are nice landmarks in a writer's life. I would be writing regardless--but, still, whew. It's good to have some encouragement.

Feel free to contact me at http://www.sharmanaptrussell.com or through my author Facebook page, Sharman Apt Russell.


Monday, December 28, 2015



My sci-fi, eco, Paleoterrific novel Knocking on Heaven's Door is being released this January 6. Some early readers have written nice reviews. This is my first science fiction, and I am excited.

 

"In classic science fiction style, Russell presents a devastated world reformed into a seeming paleolithic paradise… [a] suspenseful and gripping tale” —William Seager, author of Natural Fabrications: Science, Emergence and Consciousness

“Like Ursula K. Le Guin and Kim Stanley Robinson, Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of human reorientation within a radically reanimated world… an urgent story that immerses the reader in the agonizing entanglements and wonders of being.” —Gib Prettyman, Pennsylvania State University, Associate Editor, Resources for American Literary Study

“Sharman Apt Russell’s vibrant new novel will enthrall readers with its vision of a future in which animism, panpsychism and hard science come together to show us how the forces shaping consciousness and the universe are one and the same.” —Imre Szeman, co-author of After Globalization

“Russell’s intelligence and imagination shine.” —Eric C. Otto, author of Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism


“A syncretic approach where hard science and the hard problem of consciousness merge into a welcome addition to the science fiction canon. What’s more, this is a piece of storytelling at its best!” John M. Gist, co-author of Angst and Evolution: The Struggle for Human Potential, author of Lizard Dreaming of Birds

 “A gripping read—I couldn’t put it down, but I didn’t want it to end! Sharman Russell knows how to pay tribute to the great traditions of science fiction storytelling—and how to make them new for the twenty-first century.” Lisa Yaszek, author of Galactic Suburbia and past president of the Science Fiction Research Association

 “Russell’s novel remains steadfastly optimistic. A refreshing alternative to near-future dystopias, she offers a glimpse of a ‘future primitive’ in which people live more sustainably and equitably, sustained by a sense of wonder when nature turns out to have been panpsychic all along.” —Melody Jue, author of “Vampire Squid Media”


"An intriguing and compelling tale of humanity struggling to recover its indigenous allegiance to Earth and Earth Law despite the genie of physical science having well and truly escaped from the bottle." —Freya Matthews, author of For Love of Matter: a Contemporary Panpsychism

A voice keenly in tune with the discourses of science, ecology, rhetoric, and spirituality… Russell’s vision of tomorrow imagines sobering consequences - and pathways to possible solutions - to the crises we face today. --Michael R. Page, author of Frederik Pohl and The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology 

 “Russell has a knack for fast-paced action and poetic turns of phrase, and readers will turn the pages quickly so they can follow along with the adventures of Brad, Clare, Dog, and Luke as they journey through this new world. Fans of post-apocalyptic science fiction will find this a wild and enjoyable ride.”--Stephanie Vie, author of (E)-Dentity 
  
 “Is there anything Sharman Apt Russell cannot do on the printed page? A triumph of the imagination; a brilliant and mesmerizing addition to the sci-fi canon." —JJ Amaworo Wilson, author of Damnificados