September 1998

Richard Dale Mullen, founder of the academic journal Science-Fiction Studies, died at age 82 on August 8, 1998, in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was a founding member of the Science Fiction Research Association, and established Science-Fiction Studies in 1973 as its publisher and, with Darko Suvin, co-editor. He left the editorship in 1978 and returned in 1990 as part of a revamped editorial collective with Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., Arthur B. Evans, and Veronica Hollinger. With Suvin he co-edited two anthologies from the journal, Science-Fiction Studies: Selected Articles on Science Fiction 1973-75 (1976) and Science-Fiction Studies: Selected Articles on Science Fiction 1976-77 (1978).

(Fri 11 Sep 1998)

French writer, editor and translator Alain Doremieux died July 26th at the age of 64. He was assistant editor, then editor, of Fiction, the French edition of F&SF, beginning in the 1950s, and helped launch a new French edition of Galaxy. In the 1990s he edited a series of horror/dark fantasy anthologies, Territoires de l'inquietude (Lands of Unease), that ran 9 volumes. His own writings include four collections and one novel, Black Velvet (1993). He helped promote the French careers of his favorite writers, including Fritz Leiber, J. G. Ballard, and Philip K. Dick, and more recently horror writers Lisa Tuttle and Steve Rasnic Tem. His influence on the French SF scene was substantial, comparable to that of editors Campbell, Boucher, and Gold on American SF of the 1950s.

Links for further information (in French): http://www.integra.fr/XLII/SF42.html and http://sf.emse.fr/AUTHORS/ADOREMIEUX/ad.html

(Fri 4 Sep 1998)

Update Sept 2nd: John Douglas, administrator of the World Fantasy Awards, announced today that this year's final ballot is being revised. One of the novel nominees, Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Club Dumas, was actually published under a slightly different title in England in 1996, the year prior to the eligibility year for this ballot, and is thus now ineligible. Another title, Eric Nylund's Dry Water, is being substituted in its place in the novel category. The corrected list of nominations appears below.

novel
American Goliath, Harvey Jacobs (St. Martin's)
Dry Water, Eric S. Nylund (Avon)
The Gift, Patrick O'Leary (Tor)
The Physiognomy, Jeffrey Ford (Avon)
Trader, Charles de Lint (Tor)

novella
"Coppola's Dracula", Kim Newman (The Mammoth Book of Dracula Robinson, UK)
"The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins", Brian Hodge (Love in Vein II HarperPrism)
"The Fall of the Kings", Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman (Bending the Landscape: Fantasy White Wolf/Borealis)
"Streetcar Dreams", Richard Bowes (F&SF Apr 1997)
"The Zombies of Madison County", Douglas E. Winter (Dark of the Night Pumpkin Books, UK)

short fiction
"Audience", Jack Womack (The Horns of Elfland Roc)
"Dust Motes", P. D. Cacek (Gothic Ghosts Tor)
"Fortune and Misfortune", Lisa Goldstein (Asimov's May 1997)
"Get a Grip", Paul Park (Omni Online Mar 1997)
"The Inner Inner City", Robert Charles Wilson (Northern Frights 4 Mosaic Press)

anthology
Bending the Landscape: Fantasy, Nicola Griffith & Stephen Pagel (White Wolf/Borealis)
Dark Terrors 3, Stephen Jones & David Sutton (Gollancz)
Modern Classics of Fantasy, Gardner Dozois (St. Martin's)
Northern Frights 4, Don Hutchison (Mosaic Press)
Revelations (UK title Millennium), Douglas E. Winter (HarperPrism; HarperCollins/Voyager)

collection
Driving Blind, Ray Bradbury (Avon)
Fractal Paisleys, Paul Di Filippo (Four Walls Eight Windows)
A Geography of Unknown Lands, Michael Swanwick (Tigereyes Press)
Giant Bones, Peter S. Beagle (Roc)
The Throne of Bones, Brian McNaughton (Terminal Fright)

artist
Rick Berry
Jim Burns
Alan Lee
Don Maitz
Dave McKean

professional
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, John Clute & John Grant (Orbit; St. Martin's)
Ellen Datlow (for editing and anthologies)
Gardner Dozois (for editing and anthologies)
Stephen Jones (for editing and anthologies)
Gordon Van Gelder (for editing books (St. Martin's) and editing F&SF)

non-professional
Richard Chizmar (for Cemetery Dance magazine and CD Publications)
Chris Logan Edwards (for Tigereyes Press)
Fedogan & Bremer (for book publishing)
Barry Hoffman (for Gauntlet magazine and Gauntlet book publishing)
Jeff VanderMeer & Tom Winstead (for The Ministry of Whimsy Press)

Nearly half of this year's nominees appear on a WFA ballot for the first time, including Jim Burns, Paul Di Filippo, Harvey Jacobs, Patrick O'Leary, Paul Park, Jeff VanderMeer, and Jack Womack. In contrast are the perennial nominees: Ellen Datlow's nomination is her 18th, Stephen Jones's his 16th, Charles de Lint's his 12th, David Sutton's his 10th, Don Maitz's his 9th, and Douglas E. Winter's also his 9th.

Ellen Datlow has won 5 previous World Fantasy Awards, 4 for anthologies and 1 in the professional category. Stephen Jones has won twice before, once in the non-professional category (with David Sutton) and once for an anthology (with Ramsey Campbell). Other previous, one-time winners on this year's ballot are Sutton, Maitz, Winter, Chizmar, Swanwick, Bradbury (a Life Achievement award), McKean, and Kushner.

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling tie for most WFA wins to date, with 5 each, 3 for their co-edited Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volumes. The most frequent WFA nominee in the history of the awards remains Charles L. Grant, with 23 nominations (and 3 wins). Following Grant are Datlow, now with 18 nominations, Windling with 17, Stephen Jones with 16, and Stephen King with 15.

(Wed 12 Aug 98, updated Wed 2 Sep 98)

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