Kari Maaren

Kari Maaren is a Canadian writer, cartoonist, musician, and academic. Her first novel, Weave a Circle Round (Tor Books, 2017), won the Copper Cylinder Award and was a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award and the Sunburst Award. She has an ongoing webcomic, the award-winning It Never Rains, and a completed one, West of Bathurst. Her short fiction has appeared in The Orange & Bee and the anthologies Figments and Fragments and Tales From the Silence and will soon appear in Adventitious and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2026. She has two independent albums, Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off and Everybody Hates Elves. Kari lives in Toronto, surrounded by books.

Long Fiction

Weave a Circle Round: Tor Books, 2017

(tl;dr: wacky neighbours who are probably supernatural move in next door to stroppy fourteen-year old girl, the laws of physics get broken a lot, time travel and mythology happen)

Short Fiction

"The Fruit Is Very Acceptable Here": Adventitious, 2026 (pending)

"Made to Be Broken":: The Orange & Bee, 2025, and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2026 (pending)

"Fear of Falling": Tales From the Silence, 2024

"Because That's What Heroes Do": Figments & Fragments, 2024

Short Non-Fiction

"The Blind Prince Reimagined: Disability in Fairy Tales": Disabled People Destroy Fantasy, Uncanny Magazine, 2019

"Disability Is Part of My Experience, so It's Part of My Writing": YA Interrobang, 2018

"Debuting at Forty-Two or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Writing Process": Reactor, 2017

"In Defence of Cowardly Protagonists": Book Riot, 2017

Blog

Writing Awards

For Weave a Circle Round

Copper Cylinder Award, 2018 (won)

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book, 2018 (finalist)

Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, YA Novel, 2018 (shortlisted)

(tl;dr: young woman goes to grad school, possibly meets Satan, may or may not
experience the supernatural, still hangs out at Tim Hortons a lot)

(tl;dr: a girl who cannot keep her mouth shut makes friends with her bully, has
conversations with herself from the future, eventually travels in time, may also create a multiverse, oops)

Comic Awards

Aurora Award: Graphic Novel/Comic

Won: 2015, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023

Nominated: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2024, 2025, 2026

Albums

Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off on Bandcamp

Everybody Hates Elves on Bandcamp

YouTube Channels

Kari Maaren

For geeky ukulele songs and storytelling

The Improvyssey

A multi-year project collecting one musical improv per day

Music Awards

Aurora Award: Fan Music, Fan Related Work

Won: 2013 (for 2012 performances), 2015 (for YouTube channel)

Nominated: 2016 (for YouTube channel), 2017 (for performance at SFContario), 2018 (for performances at Toronto ChiSeries), 2019 (for performances at Toronto ChiSeries), 2020 (for YouTube channel), 2022 (for The Feather and the Book, an improvised musical novel)

Pegasus Award

Nominated: 2025 (Best Writer/Composer), 2024 (Best Classic Filk Song), 2024 (Best Magic Song), 2023 (Best Filk Song), 2022 (Best Writer/Composer), 2020 (Best Writer/Composer), 2018 (Best Writer/Composer), 2017 (Best Perky Song), 2016 (Best Adapted Song), 2016 (Best Writer/Composer), 2015 (Best Filk Song), 2015 (Best Writer/Composer)

Content copyright Kari Maaren 2026
Images copyright Kari Maaren, Phil Mills, Erik Mohr, and Karl Stahl 2026