Arkady Martine


AnnaLinden Weller is an American historian and city planner. Under the name of Arkady Martine, she is also an author of science fiction. She received the Hugo Award for Best Novel for her debut novel A Memory Called Empire.

Academic career

Weller obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago in 2007, a M.St. in Classical Armenian Studies at the University of Oxford in 2013 and a Ph.D. in medieval Byzantine, global and comparative history at Rutgers University in 2014. Her dissertation was titled "Imagining Pre-Modern Empire: Byzantine Imperial Agents Outside the Metropole". She was Visiting Assistant Professor of History at St. Thomas University from 2014–15, and postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University from 2015–17. She has published writings on the topic of Byzantine and medieval Armenian history.

Fiction writing

As Arkady Martine, Weller has been publishing science fiction short fiction since 2012.

''A Memory Called Empire''

Martine's first novel, A Memory Called Empire, published in 2019, is the beginning of her Teixcalaan series. It is set in a future where the Teixcalaanli empire governs most of human space, and is about to absorb Lsel, an independent mining station. Lsel ambassador Mahit Dzmare is sent to the imperial capital to prevent this, and finds herself embroiled in the empire's succession crisis. Martine said that the book was in many respects a fictional version of her postdoctoral research on Byzantine imperialism on the frontier to Armenia in the 11th century, particularly the annexation of the Kingdom of Ani.
In The Verge, Andrew Liptak praised the novel as a "brilliant blend of cyberpunk, space opera, and political thriller", highlighting Martine's characterization and worldbuilding. In Locus, Russell Letson appreciated the novel's "absorbing and sometimes challenging blend of intrigue and anthropological imagination", as well as its sense of humor. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews both gave the novel a starred review, noting the facility with which Martine brought the worlds of her "gorgeously crafted diplomatic space opera" to life, and comparing Martine's novel to the works of Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee. The novel was nominated for the 2019 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2020 Locus Award for Best First Novel. It won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Personal life

Weller was born and grew up in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw.