u/Olivia_Waite

Hi everyone! I’m Olivia Waite, a queer romance and sff author, and since 2020 I’ve been the romance fiction columnist for the New York Times Book Review. Which is a gig that did not even exist until very recently, and which still feels like a bit of a fairy tale. I write historical romance, sci-fi, fantasy, and essays; you can find a full book list on my website.

I love cool romance jobs, book history, science history, fiber arts, mini-dachshunds, filthy Latin poetry, and like so many of us I’ve gotten really into birds in the past few years. Can’t wait to answer your questions, so let’s get started!

Here’s me posting about this AMA on Bluesky!

>Thank you so much to everyone who asked a question or came by to read replies — this was a wonderful experience and everyone’s asks were so thoughtful! I’ll be answering a few more over the rest of the day, just for the joy of it.

Hello r/fantasy — I’m Olivia Waite, and among other things I write queer sci-fi mystery novellas about ship’s detective Dorothy Gentleman on the generation ship Fairweather. The first book, Murder by Memory, is a Hugo finalist this year and I’m still giggling in delighted disbelief about that, because it feels like a very clever con that I pulled off by … writing a book and then telling people about it, I suppose? Imposter syndrome is a monster. I also write queer historical and paranormal romance and write a monthly romance review column for the New York Times. Which is not a job that existed back when people used to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up — otherwise that probably would have been my answer.

My books tend to focus on the work people do — not because I think people are necessarily defined by their job, but because work takes up most of most people’s time. And the way you spend your time influences how you approach the world, and I find that fascinating. How does an astronomer feel about love in an infinite universe? How does a beekeeper get into local politics? How would a silk-weaver craft a heist to take down a villainous capitalist? That’s pretty much books one, two, and three in my Feminine Pursuits series of sapphic historical romances.

Before becoming an author I worked in bookstores for ten years and gave grad school a brief whirl (very educational, and not just in the ways you would think), and now I write full-time in a house in the woods in the Pacific Northwest with the husbandly love of my life. He cooks the food and I handle the yard things, which is mostly rewilding the lawns, pruning the apple orchard, scything about twice a year (scything is surprisingly chill and meditative), and perpetually refilling the sugar-water feeders in a futile attempt to sate the ravenous appetites of many local hummingbirds, who take no shit from anyone. You can generally find me on the web or Bluesky as oliviawaite.com, and I have a free, charming semi-monthly newsletter (I try to send one every month, but do not always succeed).

I’m a knitter, a beader, a self-taught sewist, a karaoke singer, a nerd about various semiconnected niches of history (the Space Race, textile arts, beekeeping, Seattle history) and although I adore a fictional murder the true crime books I most enjoy are all about jewelry heists. And shipwrecks. And Arctic exploration. If anyone knows of a book that involves all three, please let me know at once — for everyone else, AMA!