Pinsker was born in New York and lived in several places of the United States including Illinois and Texas.[4] When she was 14, her family settled in Toronto, Canada.[4] She returned to the US to attend Goucher college where she studied history.
In addition to writing fiction she is a singer-songwriter with the band Stalking Horses[5] and has had multiple albums released through independent labels.[6] She also volunteers as director at large for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and hosts the Baltimore Science Fiction Society's Dangerous Voices Variety Hour reading series.[7]
Writing
Pinsker says her writing is heavily influenced by the science fiction and literary fiction which filled her parents' home,[6] adding she is one of the rare authors who read "short stories as much as novels" when she was young.[5] Among her early influences as an author were the works of Ursula K. Le Guin[6] and Kate Wilhelm.[7] Later influences on her fiction include Octavia Butler, Karen Joy Fowler, Kij Johnson, and Kelly Link.[7]
Pinsker started out publishing her short fiction in magazines such asAsimov's Science Fiction, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Daily Science Fiction, the Journal of Unlikely Cartography, and Fireside. Anthologies containing her stories include Long Hidden, How to Live on Other Planets, Queers Destroy Science Fiction,[8] and Whose Future Is It?.[9] Among the collections of the "year's best" stories which include her stories are The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2, Year's Best Weird Fiction Vol 2, Year's Best Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2015, The Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction and The Year's Best Military and Adventure Fiction 2015.[8]
In 2019, her debut novel A Song for a New Day was published. The novel follows the life of a musician in a future where pandemics and terrorism makes public events such as concerts illegal. In 2020, it won the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 2019.[1]
Pinsker's fiction has been called "thoughtful, subtle",[10] "creepy"[11] and "dreamlike".[12] Speaking of her fiction, Pinsker says "It is a good time to be someone who has something to say about a group or a personal experience that hasn't been touched on before. Science fiction looks at the world through a slightly different lens, so it's fun to put that lens onto new experiences."[13]
