The Klezmer Nutcracker played to sold-out audiences in New York City, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam. In 2008, Vital Theatre commissioned her to script a full-scale theatrical version. With Ellen as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010 many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.Īs a live stage performer, her solo spoken word works include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra). In 1996, she created Sound & Spirit, PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. Upon moving to Boston, she became a radio host for WGBH-FM. Her stories have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish. In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies.

In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.Ī graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ellen kushner's swordspoint