author, artist, adventurepreneur
Emma Kerkman, writing under the moniker E. M. Kerkman, is a 23-year-old author known primarily for her sci-fi and surrealist short fiction.
Her awards include the 2024 Dell Award (now Must Read Books Award) for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy, First Runner-Up for the 2025 and 2026 MRB Awards, a nomination for the 2026 Astounding Award, a Merit Award from YoungArts in 2021, a nomination for the 2021 American Voices Award, three national medals from Scholastic Art & Writing, and over fifty other writing awards amassed during high school.
In May 2025, she completed a BA in Creative Writing at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, as well as a double minor in History and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. As of 2026, she has been accepted to the dual masters program with NYU and LIU and will be receiving a Masters of Arts in History with an emphasis on Medieval Europe and a Masters of Science in Library Science with an emphasis on Rare Books and Archive Conservation from LIU, beginning in Fall 2027. She hopes to use those degrees to find a position as a university special collections librarian upon graduation from the program in 2030.
She currently lives in Montana, and when she isn’t writing, she can often be found coaching high-school mountain bikers, teaching people how to snowboard, operating a zip-line and high ropes course, or practicing bass and entertaining her dream of someday being in a hair metal throwback band.
She also currently volunteers as a slush reader for Matter of the Imagination Magazine.
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