Ursula Vernon is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning graphic novel Digger and for the children's books series Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath. Vernon is the creator of The Biting Pear of Salamanca, a digitalwork of art which became an internet meme in the form of the LOL WUT pear. Under the name T. Kingfisher, she is also the author of several books for older audiences. She also writes short fiction under both names. She has won awards, including the Hugo Award, Nebula Award and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, for her work in various mediums.
Career
Ursula Vernon grew up in Oregon and Arizona and 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 Young Adult books under the pseudonym T. Kingfisher. She has published short fiction under both names, and has won a number of awards for them including the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. Vernon regularly attends conventions to exhibit and sell her work and has been a guest of honor at Midwest FurFest 2004 and 2009, and the ArtistGuest 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.
Works
Books
Ursula Vernon is the author and illustrator of the Dragonbreath and Hamster Princesschildren's book series, published by Dial Books:
Nurk: The Strange Surprising Adventures Of A Brave Shrew was published by Harcourt in 2008 and released as an audiobook in 2009. It was Vernon's first published children's book.
Paladin's Grace as T. Kingfisher Red Wombat Studio
Webcomics
Vernon is the author of the Eisner Award-nominated and Hugo Award-winning webcomic Digger. A fantasy story featuring an anthropomorphic wombat, it is also available in six paperback books published between 2005 and 2011: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6 and as Digger: The Complete Omnibus Edition published in 2013. She is also the writer and illustrator of the webcomic Irrational Fears and the short storiesLittle Creature and Little Creature and the Redcap, all available online at Webcomics Nation.
Illustrations and art
Before becoming a published children's book author Vernon was primarily a freelance artist and illustrator and she still regularly produces new works of art. Her work includes the creation of digital art as well as the use of more traditional mediums such as watercolour and acrylics, with much of her more recent work being mixed media. Most of her art work is available as prints and Vernon has also taken commercial commissions such as book covers and game art. The game Black Sheep designed by Reiner Knizia and published by Fantasy Flight Games uses art by Vernon on its playing cards. Her art work titled The Biting Pear of Salamanca became an internet meme in the form of the LOL WUT pear and has been made into a resinfigurine due to its popularity. She has also designed labels for a series of tea and soap products.
Awards and nominations
Vernon's cover for won the 2003 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration. She was nominated for the 2006 Eisner Awards in the category Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition for her work on Digger. Digger has won some Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards, and has been nominated for others, in the Outstanding Black and White Art and Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic categories. Digger won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2012 and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 2013. She won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the WSFA Small Press Award for "Jackalope Wives" in 2015, and it was also a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. In 2016 her novel "Castle Hangnail" won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature. Her story "The Tomato Thief" won the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Her short story "Sun, Moon, Dust" was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
