Lemberg was born in L'viv, Ukraine on September 27, 1976.^{[2][4][17][1]} They lived in Russia and Israel before emigrating to the United States for graduate school at University of California, Berkeley.^[18]

In their academic life, Lemberg is a professor of sociolinguistics working on immigrant discourse, identity, and gender.^[19]

Lemberg lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with their spouse, Bogi Takács (who is also queer, trans, and an Eastern European Jewish person) and their child Mati.^[18]

Lemberg is the founding editor of Stone Telling, a magazine of speculative poetry that debuted in 2010 and was named for the main characters in Ursula K. Le Guin's novel Always Coming Home.^[20] In 2012, they collected and edited Here, We Cross (An Anthology of Queer and Genderfluid Poetry from Stone Telling 1–7) from the works published in the early issues of Stone Telling, and edited The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry.^[21][22][23] In 2016, they edited the short fiction anthology An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables, which focused on short fiction works that defied classification by genre.^[24] In 2021, as a tribute following the passing of Ursula K. Le Guin in 2018, Lemberg, and co-editor Lisa Bradley, edited Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin.^[25]

Lemberg's poetry has been published in Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit, Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Apex Magazine and many others.^[3][4][5][6] Their poetry has won the Strange Horizons Readers' Poll multiple times: "In the Third Cycle" in 2011, "Between the Mountain and the Moon" in 2012, and "Ranra's Unbalancing" in 2015.^[26][27][28] Their poem, "I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niya", came in third place for the 2014 Rhysling Award in the Long Poem category.^[29][30] Their debut poetry collection, Marginalia to Stone Bird was shortlisted for the 2017 Crawford Award and was a finalist for the 2017 and 2018 Elgin Awards.^{[31][32][33][34]} Their poetry memoir, Everything Thaws, which recalls Lemberg's early life in the Soviet Union and their migrations to Israel and the United States, was published in 2023 by Ben Yehuda Press.^[35][36]

Lemberg was awarded the 2020 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship, sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives, which gave them access to many of Le Guin's archives.^[37][38] On Lemberg's website, they revealed that their project for the Fellowship, for which the archival research was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, was primarily focused on Le Guin's poetry, which they previously discussed in their essay “The Poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin: A Retrospective” and appeared in Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin.^[39]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lemberg translated works by Ukrainian poets for Chytomo, Springhouse Journal, and National Translation Month's Ukrainian Poetry in Translation Special Feature - Part II.^[40][41][42]

Lemberg's short fiction has been published in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2017, and others.^[3][4][5][6] Many of these stories are situated in their LGBTQIA+-focused secondary world, Birdverse.^[7] Their Birdverse novelette, "Grandmother-nai-Laylit's Cloth of Winds", was a finalist for the 2015 Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novelette and on the long list for the 2015 Tiptree Award.^[43][44] In 2020, their Birdverse novella, The Four Profound Weaves, was published by Tachyon to critical and reader acclaim, including a starred review and selection as a weekly pick by Publishers Weekly and a starred review from Library Journal.^[45][46][47] The Four Profound Weaves was a finalist for the 2021 World Fantasy Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and was on the Honor List for the Otherwise Award.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Lemberg's debut Birdverse novel, The Unbalancing, an expansion of the story of their poem "Ranra's Unbalancing", was published by Tachyon in 2022 with positive reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.^[14][48][49] Their Birdverse collection, Geometries of Belonging: Stories & Poems from the Birdverse, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly ahead of its release from Fairwood Press in late 2022, and notes the inclusion of a new story in the collection, "Where Your Quince Trees Grow", which follows descendants of the main characters from The Unbalancing.^[16]

• The Four Profound Weaves – 2020 Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novella; 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist for Best Novella; 2021 Locus Award Finalist for Best Novella; 2021 World Fantasy Award Finalist for Best Novella, and was on the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}
• The Unbalancing – 2022 Locus Award Finalist for Best Novel
• "Grandmother-nai-Laylit's Cloth of Winds", first published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue #175 (June 2015) - 2015 Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novelette, and on the long list for the 2015 Tiptree Award.^[43][44]
• Marginalia to Stone Bird, Aqueduct Press, 2016 - shortlisted for the Crawford Award, Finalist for the 2017 and 2018 Elgin Awards.^{[32][31][33][34]}
• "Ranra's Unbalancing", Strange Horizons, 2015 - winner of the Strange Horizons Readers' Poll, 2015.^[28]
• "I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niya", Goblin Fruit, 2013 - came in third place for the 2014 Rhysling Award in the Long Poem category.^[29][30]
• "Between the Mountain and the Moon", Strange Horizons, 2013 - winner of the Strange Horizons Readers' Poll, 2012.^[27]
• "In the Third Cycle", Strange Horizons, 2011 - winner of the Strange Horizons Readers' Poll, 2011.^[26]
• Geometries of Belonging - 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist^[50]

Novels edit

Birdverse edit

• The Four Profound Weaves, Tachyon, 2020

• The Unbalancing, Tachyon, 2022

Short fiction edit

Collections edit

• Geometries of Belonging: Stories & Poems from the Birdverse, Fairwood Press, 2022

Birdverse Stories edit

Other Short Fiction edit

Poetry edit

Collections edit

• Everything Thaws - Ben Yehuda Press, 2023
• Marginalia to Stone Bird – Aqueduct Press, 2016^[57]

Birdverse Poems edit

Editor edit

• Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin (with Lisa Bradley) - Aqueduct Press, 2021.
• An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables – Stone Bird Press, 2016
• Here, We Cross (An Anthology of Queer and Genderfluid Poetry from Stone Telling 1–7) – Stone Bird Press, 2012.
• The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry - Aqueduct Press, 2012.
• Stone Telling magazine, 2010-2016

Non-fiction edit

• "Sergeant Bothari and Disability Representation in the Early Vorkosiverse", Strange Horizons, 2018
• "The Uses and Limitations of the Folklorist's Toolkit for Fiction", Strange Horizons, 2015
• "Encouraging Diversity: An Editor's Perspective", Strange Horizons, 2015
• "Not Only a Hero's Journey", with Shweta Narayan, Stone Telling, 2011
• "Silence to Speech", Stone Telling, 2010

• List of fantasy authors
• List of LGBT writers

• Official website
• R. B. Lemberg at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• R. B. Lemberg's Patreon

Interviews edit

• My Favorite Bit: R. B. Lemberg Talks About The Four Profound Weaves, Alyshondra Meacham, MaryRobinetteKowal.com
• Noticing Language: An Interview with Rose Lemberg, Julia Rios, Strange Horizons, 2013
• R. B. Lemberg talks The Birdverse, Identity and Government, Dominic Walsh, SciFiPulse, 2021
• R. B. Lemberg: A Different Adventure, Locus, 2021
• Interview with R. B. Lemberg (The Unbalancing), The Fantasy Hive, 2022
• Author Interview: Queer Norms and Sexualities in R. B. Lemberg's Birdverse, Jaymee Goh, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 8 September 2022