Ursula Vernon

Ursula Vernon (born May 28, 1977) is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She has won numerous awards for her work in various mediums, including Hugo Awards for her graphic novel Digger, fantasy novel Nettle & Bone, and fantasy novella Thornhedge, the Nebula Award for her short story "Jackalope Wives", and Mythopoeic Awards for adult and children's literature. Vernon's books for children include Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath. Under the name T. Kingfisher, she is also the author of books for older audiences. She writes short fiction under both names.

Ursula Vernon grew up in Oregon and Arizona. She studied anthropology at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she first took art classes. She first became known for her webcomics and as a freelance artist, particularly for her works containing anthropomorphic animals. She then moved into writing and illustrating a number of children's books, her first being published in 2008, and then books for adults under the pseudonym T. Kingfisher. She decided to start using the pseudonym in order to avoid confusion amongst parents who were only familiar with her as a children's book author, and chose it because she loves kingfishers and as an homage to Ursula K. LeGuin, who once joked that the initials "U.K." could stand for "Ulysses Kingfisher". Vernon has published short fiction under both names, and has won a number of awards for them including the Hugo Award and Nebula Award.

She regularly attends conventions to exhibit and sell her work. She has been a guest of honor at Midwest FurFest 2004 and 2009, and the Artist Guest of Honor at Further Confusion 2010. Vernon was the Author Guest of Honor for Mythcon 45 and a Guest of Honor at Eurofurence 20, both in August 2014. In 2017, she was the Author Guest of Honor at Arisia '17.

Vernon podcasts with her husband, Kevin Sonney.

In June 2023, Vernon announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer; by December of that year, she announced that her treatment had been successful and she was "cancer-free".

As author and illustrator:

As author and illustrator:

The following books were written under the name T. Kingfisher and take place in what Vernon calls "the World of the White Rat" or "the Temple of the White Rat world".