Draft:Debbie Urbanski

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  • Comment: To give some clarity for what we are looking for to show WP:NAUTHOR: usually we need 2+ books with 2+ independent, published reviews each. It looks like this article may currently be WP:TOOSOON, but once the short story collection is published, if it gets reviews that would be enough. It is unusual for someone to pass WP:NAUTHOR with just short stories and essays, primarily because short stories and essays rarely get reviews written about them: if you can find 2+ reviews each for some of the individual stories, that could work instead.
    Note that the focus there is on the kind of source: it's not necessary to write the article in such a way that it makes her sound amazing. In fact, it would be sufficient to just have a bulleted list of her works, with the reviews as references for each work. ~ L 🌸 (talk) 04:13, 8 June 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: I am not persuaded that Urbanski passes WP:NAUTHOR, which is al you have to demonstrate
    I think you have become a little over-enthusiastic. Thirty five references for a six paragraph draft is unusual. This generally means a misunderstanding of referencing.
    What I see is a myriad of passing mentions hidden among references which pass WP:42 🇵🇸‍🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦‍🇵🇸 08:17, 3 June 2025 (UTC)


Debbie Urbanski
Born (1976-07-23) July 23, 1976 (age 49)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
OccupationWriter
EducationCarleton College (BA)
Syracuse University (MFA)
GenresScience Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Climate Fiction, Essays
Website
https://debbieurbanski.com

Debbie Urbanski (born July 23, 1976) is an American author best known for her speculative prose and fantastical realism.[1] Her debut novel After World (Simon & Schuster, 2023) explores human extinction and climate change from the perspective of an artificial intellegence.[2] Her work has been featured in several anthologies including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy,[3] The Best American Experimental Writing,[4] and The Year's Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy.[5] Her debut collection of short stories, Portalmania, was published in May 2025 by Simon & Schuster.[6]

Early life

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Urbanski grew up in Chicago, Illinois and Orland Park, Illinois. She is a graduate of Carleton College[7] and the Creative Writing M.F.A. Program of Syracuse University.[8]

Career

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Early in her career, Urbanski wrote poetry[9] but eventually transitioned to short stories and essays. For several years she wrote for children and teens,[10] publishing numerous stories in Highlights[11] as well as Cricket Media's Spider and Cicada magazines.[12] Working with editor Jestine Ware, Urbanski wrote what became Spider's first LGBTQIA+ story[13] about a hiking trip taken by a family with two moms.[14] She began publishing genre work in 2012 with the short story "Wonder" in Interzone and she is now listed in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.[15]

In 2019 she was awarded a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award for fiction and nonfiction.[16] This national award was given to emerging women writers of exceptional promise for their special contributions to our culture.[17]

Selected works

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After World

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In Urbanski's debut novel After World (Simon & Schuster, 2023), humans have gone extinct to save the planet, and an artificial intellegence is tasked with telling the story of what happened to the last human on Earth. The story takes place in Syracuse, New York (where Urbanski lives now with her family) and in the New York State Forests south of Syracuse.[18] After World was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle,[19] Strange Horizons,[20] Los Angeles Times,[21] Engadget,[22] and Booklist;[23] was a New York Public Library Book of the Day;[24] and was a Climate Reality Project book club pick.[25] After World won the 2025 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Creative Writing Book Award, with the judges commenting: "The novel’s formal inventiveness serves its thematic concerns perfectly, creating a work that is simultaneously a love letter to the natural world, a requiem for human civilization, and a plea for the unique value of human life."[26]

Portalmania

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The short stories in Portalmania, Urbanski's 2025 debut collection, span across sci-fi, fantasy, horror and realism and touch upon themes of motherhood, relationships, asexuality, and love.[6] Portalmania received positive reviews in The Wall Street Journal,[27] Publishers Weekly,[28] Chicago Review of Books,[29] and The Massachusetts Review.[30] Locus Magazine wrote: "Every story in Portalmania is distinctive, vital, and sophisticated; the whole is an almost perfectly constructed debut collection that brings into sharp focus an impressively cohesive project."[31]

References

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  1. ^ "Meet the 2019 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards Winners!". RJF. August 27, 2019.
  2. ^ After World. December 5, 2023. ISBN 978-1-6680-2345-7 – via www.simonandschuster.com.
  3. ^ "Amazon.com". Amazon.
  4. ^ Abramson, Seth; Damiani, Jesse (10 November 2020). Amazon.com. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0819579584.
  5. ^ Horton, Rich (10 August 2021). Amazon.com. Prime Books. ISBN 978-1607015383.
  6. ^ a b Portalmania. 13 May 2025. ISBN 978-1-6680-6111-4 – via www.simonandschuster.com.
  7. ^ "Huntington Poetry Prize - Carleton College". www.carleton.edu. 12 June 2019.
  8. ^ "Debbie Urbanski". College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University.
  9. ^ "Syracuse-based author explores AI, climate change, apocalypse in debut novel". WAER. April 2, 2024.
  10. ^ Ware, Jestine (November 16, 2018). "Ask an Author: Debbie Urbanski". Jestine Ware Editor.
  11. ^ "Amazon.com". Amazon.
  12. ^ https://info.cricketmedia.com/rs/357-NUK-896/images/VeryLongHike.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  13. ^ Ware, Jestine (June 2, 2018). "One Queer Magazine Editor". Jestine Ware Editor.
  14. ^ "Cricket Media Expands LGBTQAI+ Content and Community for Kids, Teens". Mombian. April 5, 2018.
  15. ^ "SFE: Urbanski, Debbie".
  16. ^ "Winner, Debbie Urbanski". RJF.
  17. ^ "History | the Rona Jaffe Foundation".
  18. ^ tcobb@syracuse.com, Timia Cobb (December 8, 2023). "New sci-fi novel 'After World' set in apocalyptic Syracuse and Upstate New York". syracuse.
  19. ^ "The Chronicle's favorite fiction and nonfiction books of 2023".
  20. ^ January 2025, Our Reviewers Issue: 6 (January 10, 2025). "2024 In Review: Part Three".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "Column: The 10 best tech books of 2023". Los Angeles Times. December 22, 2023.
  22. ^ "Our favorite books we read in 2024". Engadget. December 21, 2024.
  23. ^ "Booklist Online: Leading Book Discovery". www.booklistonline.com.
  24. ^ https://x.com/nypl/status/1894719104692449571
  25. ^ "The Climate Reality Project on LinkedIn: Join the Climate Reality Book Club for a chat with author Debbie Urbanski..." www.linkedin.com.
  26. ^ "ASLE » 2025 ASLE Book Award Winners".
  27. ^ "Fiction: 'Pan' by Michael Clune".
  28. ^ "Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski".
  29. ^ "Searching and Finding in "Sympathy for Wild Girls" and "Portalmania"". 27 May 2025.
  30. ^ "Where Does It Lead? A Review of Debbie Urbanski's Portalmania". 3 June 2025.
  31. ^ "Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski: Review by Niall Harrison". 27 June 2025.


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