Born Carolyn Janice Cherryh in 1942, St. Louis Missouri. For those of you who may have wondered, her surname rhymes with cherry. Cherryh began writing when she was ten but didn't publish a novel until her ground breaking work Gate of Ivrel in 1976. Until then she had been living a normal, if not exceptionally diverse, life as a teacher.
In 1962 Cherryh received her B.A. in Latin from the University of Oklahoma. She quickly followed up with an M.A. in Classics, with a specialty in Roman Law, from Johns Hopkins in 1965. After graduation she returned to Oklahoma to begin her first career. Until she published her first book, Cherryh lived in Oklahoma City teaching Latin, Greek, Ancient History, writing and coaching the fencing team.
Cherryh's writing tends to draw upon her many interests in a diversity of fields including anthropology (she's a qualified field archaeologist), botany, climatology, language and engineering. She is technically sophisticated enough to draw upon these interests and incorporate them into her writing to create believable worlds and technology without becoming so detailed that the reader is required to understand particle physics or microbiology.
While a freshman in college Cherryh realized that demands of the stories she wished to write required an objectivity from narration that would require some changes in her writing style. Her style has been described as a simple past tense third person, but she calls it "intense third person." While still a student, Cherryh devised a strict set of style guidelines that allows her to completely immerse the flow and narration of the story in the character itself and the author is almost removed from influencing the narration of the story. Cherryh believes these guidelines are what allows her to approach storytelling with a unique perspective on the physiology, perception and culture of her well crafted alien characters.
If one theme is to be perceived through many of her works it is the evolution of intelligent predators and how the alien psychology of these creatures effects their relationships with humans. Two of her most popular alien races, the Atevi and the Mri are both portrayed as honorable warrior races on a different biological track than humans. Their basic needs are different than humans and this clearly effects the friction between the two and their human counterparts.
Cherryh's complex characters and environments, combined with amazingly sympathetic portrayals of alien psychology have earned her a reputation as a hard read. Some feel her work is inaccessible and akin to mental exercise. While that may be true for some, I have never failed to be completely captured by one of her books. The first novel of hers that I read was Foreigner. At first, it struck me as being juvenile and very similar to the science fiction works of Mercedes Lackey. The characters seemed flat and the premise difficult to understand, and so, the going was initially, very slow. That all changed within a few chapters. I was rapidly drawn into the story of a man out of his league and over his head in a world of swirling, barely understandable alien politics. I have since been completely hooked on her work and her characters. Cherryh is swiftly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Cherryh has published over 50 novels, and numerous short stories, anthologies and academic works. A complete bibliographic listing is beyond the scope of this node as she continues to publish at a furious pace. Her Hugo-nominated Cuckoo's Egg was written in two weeks. Cyteen, a complex novel about the moral implications of scientific responsibility, took only six months to write. It was easily four times as long as Cuckoo's Egg and won a Hugo in 1989.
Award Nominations
Hugo award for The Faded Sun: Kesrith and short story Cassandra, 1979
Nebula award for The Faded Sun: Kesrith and short story Cassandra, 1979
Hugo for Downbelow, 1982
Hugo for Chanur's Venture, 1985
Hugo for Cuckoo's Egg, 1987
Hugo for Cyteen, 1989
Awards Won
John W. Cambell Award, 1977
Hugo for short story Cassandra, 1979
Hugo for Downbelow, 1982
Hugo for Cyteen, 1989
Locus Award for Cyteen, 1988
Works cited
www.cherryh.com
http://www.futurefiction.com/C.%20J.%20Cherryh.htm
http://www.perrochon.com/cherryh/ref/biograph.html
http://www.bucconeer.worldcon.org//PR4/jfancher.htm