Author Sarah A. Hoyt, 54, was taken to the hospital on December 2, 2016 and kept for overnight observation after collapsing in her home. She reported on her blog, “While I did have some sort of a heart event, with continuing irregularities after, it is not in any way a ‘conventional heart attack.'”

Hoyt returned home on Saturday, December 3, and posted, “I’m okay for now.” ...Read More

Kathryn Cramer has announced on social media that Tor editor David Hartwell has suffered “a massive brain bleed and is not expected to recover.” We will update as more information is available. ...Read More

The Horror Writers Association has announced the formation of the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship, in honor of their president, who died earlier this month. The scholarship was proposed by HWA treasurer Leslie Klinger and will focus on non-fiction writers. Klinger will oversee implementation of the prize.

The HWA also announced that vice president Lisa Morton will take over as president to finish out the rest of Wood’s term. Nancy Holder ...Read More

Harlan Ellison, 80, suffered a stroke on October 9, 2014, and is recovering in the hospital. His wife Susan Ellison posted October 12 at Ellison Webderland:

I will make this brief. A couple of days ago Harlan had a stroke. He’s in the hospital. His right side is paralyzed.

He’s comfortable–as possible. We will keep you up-to-date with his progress. With all kindness –Susan

He is reportedly resting and recovering ...Read More

Gillian Redfearn has been promoted to publishing director of Gollancz. Redfearn, who was previously deputy publishing director, will continue to report to Jon Wood. Wood is now the managing director of Gollancz, adding these duties to his continued roles as deputy group publisher and editor for the UK publisher.

See the Gollancz press release here. ...Read More

Author Jay Lake announced that he has made his entire genetic sequence open source through the Personal Genome Project. The sequencing was originally paid for by a fundraiser last January, Sequence a Science Fiction Writer, done as an attempt to find a new treatment path for Lake’s colon cancer. This may be the first time that an entire human whole genome sequencing set has been released open source. Lake’s cancer ...Read More

Robert Silverberg, 78, suffered a heart attack on October 29, 2013 while visiting the UK. He was hospitalized, had a stent implanted, and was discharged on October 30. Silverberg is in the UK for the World Fantasy Convention — which he was unable to attend — and is due to return home to California on November 4th. ...Read More

Neil Gaiman is joining the Bard College faculty as a Professor in the Arts for the Spring 2014 semester. His first course will be a writing workshop exploring “the history of the fantastic, approaches to fantasy fiction, and the meaning of fantasy today.”

Details Gaiman’s appointment can be found here. ...Read More

On September 23, 2013, the Palms-Rancho Park library was dedicated to the late Ray Bradbury by the City of Los Angeles.  That branch of the library was frequented by Bradbury and his four daughters, three of whom were in attendance for the dedication ceremony.  Other attendees included Harlan Ellison, George Clayton Johnson, Steven Paul Leiva, Michelle Pincus, Mark Scott Zicree, members of the Los Angeles City Council, and other community ...Read More

Spider Robinson announced on his blog that he suffered a heart attack on August 31, 2013, calling 911 just in time to save his life. He was released from the hospital on September 7, and is expected to make a full recovery.

For more, see the story on his website. ...Read More

J.K. Rowling is writing a screenplay based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001) for Warner Bros. The film will  launch a new series of spin-offs set in the world of Harry Potter.

For more, see the story on Tor.com. ...Read More

Ellen Datlow reported on Facebook that author Lucius Shepard, 66, suffered a stroke a week after being admitted to the hospital for various health problems on August 5, 2013. He is now recovering in rehab. Datlow wrote, “He wants everyone to know that he’s okay, that he’s working on it, and that he cannot speak well, can’t write at all, and he can just barely read.” ...Read More

SF writer Theodore Beale, who blogs as Vox Day, announced that the SFWA Board has voted to expel him from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. He posted a letter from SFWA President Steven Gould that reads, in part:

After careful consideration of the evidence gathered by the Board-appointed investigator and your response, and in compliance with the existing Massachusetts By-Laws, the approved operations and procedures, and legal ...Read More

The estate of Texas literary agent Glenn Lord donated a large collection of materials related to Robert E. Howard to the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at the University of Texas. The collection contains over 15,000 pages of manuscripts, sketches, and ephemera, including correspondences between Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.  Howard, best known for creating the character of Conan the Barbarian, wrote more than 100 stories for ...Read More

Forbes released its list of top-earning authors for the past 12 months, and SF/F authors dominate the list, taking nine of the 16 slots. Authors of genre interest are:

1. E.L. James: $95 million 2. James Patterson: $91 million 3. Suzanne Collins: $55 million 8. Nora Roberts: $23 million 9. Dan Brown: $22 million 10. Stephen King: $39 million 11. Dean Koontz: $20 million 14. Rick Riordan: $14 million 15. ...Read More

The Center for the Study of Women in Society is celebrating its 40th Anniversary by creating the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship.

The Fellowship will be realized through a collaboration between the University of Oregon Knight Library, the Robert D. Clark Honors College (CHC), and the Center for the Study of Women in Society. The purpose of the Fellowship is to encourage continued research in the area of feminist ...Read More

Science fiction writers Michael Swanwick, Gardner Dozois, Tom Purdom, and Ben Bova were among 50 people honored in a display at the Philadelphia International Airport titled “Philadelphia’s Literary Legacy: Selected Authors, Playwrights, and Poets – from Writers of the Declaration of Independence to Present Day”. The airport partnered with the Free Library of Philadelphia to select a wide range of authors including Benjamin Franklin, Louisa May Alcott, and Pearl S. ...Read More

The International Astronomical Union approved astronomer José Luis Galache’s request to name an asteroid after author Iain M. Banks, on June 23, 2013. Asteroid Iainbanks is 3.8 miles across, and is in the Main Asteroid Belt of the Sol system. It takes 3.94 years to complete a revolution around the Sun. Read more about the asteroid on the MPC blog, and view an interactive sketch of its orbit.

Read the ...Read More

A crowdfunding project launched on May 15, 2013 on Kickstarter to turn Blood Kiss, a script by Emmy Award-winning writer Michael Reaves, into a film. Writer Neil Gaiman and actress and fantasy writer Amber Benson will both star if the film is funded.

For more information, and to donate, see Blood Kiss on Kickstarter. ...Read More

Science fiction and fantasy writer Jay Lake announced in a blog post yesterday that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

From his blog post: “the short form version is that I have a large mass in my peritoneum, two inches or more in size, along with another somewhat smaller mass. These are more omental tumors. Multiple masses of various sizes spread throughout my liver, some of them confirmed tumors, ...Read More

The results of the SFWA officers’ election were announced. As of July 1, 2013, the new board will be:

President: Steven Gould

Vice-President: Rachel Swirsky

Secretary: Susan Forest

Treasurer: Bud Sparhawk

South/Central Regional Director: Lee Martindale

Overseas Regional Director: Tansy Rayner Roberts

There were 516 ballots cast by the April 26, 2013 deadline, up from 395 last year. Of those, 23 were discarded as invalid due to lack of the ...Read More

Clarion West has received a $10,000 Art Works Grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to support its six-week Summer Writers Workshop, as well as its monthly one-day workshops for Pacific Northwest Writers.  This is part of a plan by the NEA to award $26.3 million in grants to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide. Thirteen different disciplines are represented by the grants, and Clarion West is ...Read More