Alethea Kontis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alethea Kontis
Kontis at Burke Centre Library in 2013
Born	January 11, 1976 South Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Genre	Teen & young adult, fantasy, horror fiction, science fiction, romance

Alethea Kontis is an American author who writes exciting books for young people, including picture books and stories that blend fantasy and science fiction. She also writes essays and is a great storyteller.

About Alethea Kontis

Alethea Kontis was born in South Burlington, Vermont, and now lives in Titusville, Florida. She is a very busy writer and has won many awards for her books. Some of these awards include the Garden State Teen Book Award and the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award, which she won two times!

For many years, Alethea was a book reviewer for NPR, which is a big radio network. She mostly reviewed books for young adults and children. She also co-wrote a book called The Dark-Hunter Companion with another author, Sherrilyn Kenyon. Alethea learned and improved her writing skills by studying with famous authors like Orson Scott Card and Andre Norton.

Alethea's Journey in Publishing

After finishing college, Alethea started working with books. She was a bookseller and then a librarian. She became an Assistant Children's Librarian at the Smyrna Public Library. Later, she became a book buyer for a company called Ingram Book Company. She worked there for ten years, choosing which books to buy and sell.

While at Ingram, Alethea interviewed authors and was known as the "Genre Chick." She also helped host a podcast called "Tea in Space." People even called her "The Voice of Ingram" because she was so good at talking about books.

In 2000, Alethea started editing books for different publishers. She helped make sure books were ready to be printed. She also began writing book reviews for magazines like The Rutherford Reader. In 2008, she got her own book review column called "Princess Alethea's Magical Elixir." Since 2018, her reviews have appeared in Locus (magazine) and regularly on NPR Books.

Alethea also helped edit fiction books. In 2004, she became an editor for Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest. That same year, she worked on a special book called Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology. This book was a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories. All the money made from this book went to Save the Children to help after the big 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

From 2005 to 2009, Alethea ran her own small publishing company called NYX Books. In 2015, she started another small company under her own name to publish some of her own books.

Alethea's Writing Career

Alethea's journey as a fiction writer really took off after two important events. In 2003, she attended a special writing camp led by Orson Scott Card. Then, she met author Andre Norton, who lived in the same town. They became good friends. To keep improving her writing, Alethea helped start an online writing group called Codex Writers Group in 2004.

That same year, she got an offer to publish her first picture book, AlphaOops: The Day Z Went First (2006). She wrote more books for young children, including a sequel, AlphaOops!: H is for Halloween (2010). Other children's books include The Wonderland Alphabet: Alice's Adventures Through the ABCs and What She Found There (2012), The Little Witch and Wizard (2019), and Oodles of Doodles! (2022).

Alethea also writes for older readers in the horror, science fiction, fantasy, and romance genres. Her first short story, "Sunday," was published in 2006. She has written many short stories and co-wrote the New York Times bestseller Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Companion (2007). She also wrote a memoir called Beauty & Dynamite (2008).

Her first novel, Enchanted, came out in 2012. This book was the first in her Woodcutter Sisters series. It was an expanded version of her short story "Sunday" and won many awards. The series continued with Hero (2013) and Dearest (2015).

In 2013, Alethea spoke about fairy tales at the Library of Congress. In 2015, she gave a special speech at the Alice150 Conference in New York City. This conference celebrated 150 years of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Alethea is also a poet, and her poems have appeared in various publications. She credits authors like Andre Norton, Orson Scott Card, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jane Yolen as her teachers and mentors.

Alethea's Books

Novels for Young Readers

• Enchanted (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 1, 2012) - This book won the Gelett Burgess Award and the Garden State Teen Book Award.
• Hero (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 2, 2013)
• Dearest (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 3, 2015)
• Trixter (The Trix Adventures Book 1, 2015)
• Trix & the Faerie Queen (The Trix Adventures Book 2, 2016) - This book was a finalist for the Dragon Award.
• Haven Kansas (2016)
• The Truth About Cats And Wolves: A Nocturne Falls Universe story (2017)
• When Tinker Met Bell: A Nocturne Falls Universe story (2017) - This book was nominated for a Dragon Award.
• Besphinxed: A Nocturne Falls Universe story (2018) - This book won the Scribe Award.
• Thieftess (Thursday Woodcutter) (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 4)

Collections of Stories and Essays

• Beauty & Dynamite (2008) – This book includes essays and poems.
• Wild & Wishful, Dark & Dreaming: the worlds of Alethea Kontis (2013)
• Tales of Arilland (Fairy Stories from the Dark Wood) (Books of Arilland Book 5, 2015) - This book won the Gelett Burgess Award.
• Genius Loci: Tales of the Spirit of Place (2016)
• Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling (2016)

Story Collections She Contributed To

The Once Upon Faerie Tale Anthology Collection:

• Once Upon A Curse (2016)
• Once Upon A Kiss (2017)
• Once Upon A Quest (2018)
• Once Upon A Star (2019)
• Once Upon A Ghost (2020)
• Once Upon A Wish (2021)
• Once Upon A Bite (2022)

Non-Fiction Books

• The Dark-Hunter Companion, co-written with Sherrilyn Kenyon (2007) - This is a guide to the Dark-Hunter series.

Children's Books

• AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First, illustrated by Bob Kolar (2006)
• Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome, illustrated by Janet K. Lee (2009)
• AlphaOops!: H is for Halloween, illustrated by Bob Kolar (2010)
• The Wonderland Alphabet: Alice's Adventures Through the ABCs and What She Found There, illustrated by Janet K. Lee (2012)
• Oodles of Doodles!: Ready-to-Read Level 1, illustrated by Christophe Jacques (2022)

Short Stories

Alethea Kontis has written many short stories for different magazines and collections. Some of them include:

• "Sunday" (2006)
• "Small Magics" (2006)
• "Blood & Water" (2008)
• "Clockwise" (2011)
• "The Monster & Mrs. Blake"
• "The Unicorn Hunter"
• "The Witch of Black Mountain"

Awards and Recognitions

See Also

• Great grand-niece of Ernestine Mercer.