C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author for her novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and for her collection Bone Swans, Stories. Her other published work includes Saint Death’s Herald, The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, Desdemona and the Deep, and poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which includes her Rhysling Award-winning poem “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Forthcoming in 2025 is Saint Death’s Herald, second in the Saint Death series.
As a voice actor, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts such as Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. As singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, she crowdfunded for two EPs: Alecto! Alecto! and The Headless Bride, and produced one album: Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir.
Her plays have been performed in several countries: most recently, March 2023, a collaborative sci-fi musical Ballads from a Distant Star at New York City’s Arts on Site. Her short fiction and poetry can be found in many speculative fiction magazines and anthologies, most recently: “A Minnow or Perhaps a Colossal Squid,” in Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Fantasy Volume 1, “Snowed In,” in Bridge To Elsewhere, and “Megaton Comics Proudly Presents: Cap and Mia, Episode One: Captain Comeback Saves the Day!” in The Sunday Morning Transport—all in collaboration with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez.
With her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez, she co-designed the GM-less Tabletop RPG Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), out from Outland Entertainment in 2024.
You can learn more about C. S. E. Cooney on her website, csecooney.com, and follow her on Substack as csecooney, Twitch as csecooney, YouTube as @c.s.e.cooney, Instagram as @csecooney, Bluesky as @csecooney.bsky.social, and on Bandcamp as Brimstone Rhine.
© 2025