The Genius Author Who Turns Fairy Tales Inside Out

In the 22 years since the publication of her first story collection, Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link's fiction has crept from the status of cult favorite to something approaching the mainstream--or, rather, the mainstream has crept toward her. Link has never written a novel, only short stories (although a novel has been promised for next year), and her first two books were published by the small press she operates with her husband, Gavin Grant. Furthermore, she writes in genres once regarded as peripheral: fantasy and (occasionally) science fiction. None of this has been considered conducive to literary fame, but times have changed. Novelists ranging from Michael Chabon (a big Link fan) to Kate Atkinson have dissolved many of the boundaries between genre fiction and the mainstream.