Ann Leckie (born March 2, 1966) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which features artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were both nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, Translation State, published in 2023, and Radiant Star, published in 2026, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe.
Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, was published in February 2019.
Having grown up as a science fiction fan in St. Louis, Missouri, Leckie's attempts in her youth to get her science fiction works published were unsuccessful. One of her few publications from that time was an unattributed bodice-ripper in True Confessions.
After giving birth to her children in 1996 and 2000, boredom as a stay-at-home mother motivated her to sketch a first draft of what would become Ancillary Justice for National Novel Writing Month 2002. In 2005, Leckie attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop, where she studied under Octavia Butler. After that, she wrote Ancillary Justice over a period of six years; it was picked up by the publisher Orbit in 2012 and published the following year.
Leckie has published numerous short stories, in outlets including Subterranean Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Realms of Fantasy. Her short stories have been selected for inclusion in year's best collections, such as The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Rich Horton.
She edited the science fiction and fantasy online magazine Giganotosaurus from 2010 to 2013, and is assistant editor of the PodCastle podcast. She served as the secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2012 to 2013.
Leckie's debut novel Ancillary Justice, the first book of the Imperial Radch space opera trilogy, was published to critical acclaim in October 2013 and won all of the principal English-language science fiction awards (see Ann Leckie#Awards and nominations). It follows Breq, the sole survivor of a starship destroyed by treachery and vessel of that ship's artificial consciousness, as she attempts to avenge herself on the ruler of her empire.
The sequel, Ancillary Sword, was published in October 2014, and the conclusion, Ancillary Mercy, was published in October 2015. "Night's Slow Poison" (2014) and "She Commands Me and I Obey" (2014) are short stories set in the same universe.
In 2015, Orbit Books purchased two additional novels from Leckie. The first, Provenance (published on 3 October 2017), is set in the Imperial Radch universe. The second was to have been an unrelated science fiction novel. In April 2018, Orbit announced that Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, would be published in early 2019. Another standalone novel set in the Imperial Radch universe entitled Translation State was published on June 6, 2023.
Ancillary Justice. (1 October 2013). Orbit. ISBN 978-0-356-50240-3.
Ancillary Sword. (7 October 2014). Orbit. ISBN 978-0-356-50241-0.
Ancillary Mercy. (6 October 2015). Orbit. ISBN 978-0-356-50242-7.
Provenance. (26 September 2017). Orbit. ISBN 978-0-316-38867-2.
Translation State. (6 June 2023). Orbit. ISBN 978-0316-28971-9.
Radiant Star. (12 May 2026). Orbit. ISBN 978-0316290357.
The Raven Tower. (26 February 2019). Orbit. ISBN 978-0316388696.
Lake of Souls. (9 Jul 2024). Orbit. ISBN 978-0-356-52346-0.
"Hesperia and Glory". (2006). Subterranean Magazine 4. (Reprinted in Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007 Edition, edited by Rich Horton)