K.J. Parker’s Identity Revealed

The pseudonymous World Fantasy Award-winning author K.J. Parker revealed his true identity, humorous fantasy writer Tom Holt, in a conversation with Locus‘s own Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, on their Coode Street Podcast. You can listen to the interview here.

Holt, 53, began publishing as K.J. Parker in 1998 with Colours in the Steel and has produced over a dozen novels under that name, along with acclaimed short fiction ...Read More

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Rocky Wood Scholarship

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

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Ellison Recovering from Stroke

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

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Promotions at Gollancz

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

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Jay Lake Makes Complete Genome Open Source

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

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Gaiman Joins Bard Faculty

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

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Library Dedicated to Bradbury

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

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Russell Wins Genius Grant

Author Karen Russell is one of 24 MacArthur Fellows selected for 2013.  Each winner of the famed “Genius Grants” will receive $125,000 per year for the next five years (up from the previous $100K per year), with no strings attached.

The awards are presented to ‘‘individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits’’ in any field. Fellows are chosen through a system of anonymous nominators and ...Read More

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Lucius Shepard Recovering from Stroke

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

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SFWA Board Votes to Expel Beale

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

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Robert E. Howard Materials Donated to Ransom Center

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

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Forbes’s Top-Earning Authors

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

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Jay Lake Film Premiere

The world premiere of Lakeside, a documentary about author Jay Lake’s battle with cancer, will be a feature at LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction convention, August 29 – September 2, 2013 in San Antonio TX. Lake and the director of the film, Donnie Reynolds, will introduce the film on Friday, August 30, at 9:00 a.m.

LoneStarCon 3 will also have a special exhibit on Jay Lake’s genome, which ...Read More

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Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship

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

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Swanwick, Dozois, Purdom, and Bova Honored in Philadelphia Exhibit

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

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Asteroid Named After Iain Banks

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

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Jay Lake Receives Terminal Diagnosis

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

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SFWA Election Results

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

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Clarion West Receives NEA Art Works Grant

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

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Harlan Takes a Fall

After recording his lines for a scene with Milhouse and Comic Book Guy in an episode of The Simpsons on April 4, Harlan Ellison was injured when he fell out of a chair in the Writers’ Enclave room, as reported on the Harlan Ellison Webderland. Harlan described it:

“Then one of the ancient, rickety old swivel chairs they use to furnish the Writers’ Enclave, in which I sat extolling, tipped ...Read More

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Petition for Asimov Historical Marker

A petition is being circulated by the Philadelphia Weekly to place a historical marker in honor of late SF grandmaster Issac Asimov on the corner of 50th and Spruce, where he once lived: “Isaac Asimov. The late grand master of science fiction who authored 500 books across every Dewey Decimal category and invented the very idea of ‘robotics’ as a field of study, thus shaping the course of 20th- and ...Read More

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Iain Banks Diagnosed With Terminal Cancer

Iain Banks, Scottish SF and mainstream author, 59, has announced that he is “officially Very Poorly.” He has been diagnosed with late stage gall bladder cancer, and it is extremely unlikely that he will live beyond a year. He has withdrawn from all scheduled appearances and had asked his partner, Adele,  if she would do the honor of “becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps).”

From ...Read More

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SF Collection Donated to SDSU

Edward E. Marsh, who spent 30 years amassing a vast SF and fantasy collection, donated much of the collection to San Diego State University’s Love Library. Valued at over $2.25 million, the collection includes ephemera such as press clippings, notes, busts of authors, movie props, original book cover art, literary contracts, authors’ yearbooks, and  autographs, and features works by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, L. ...Read More

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Swell of Support for Jay Lake

Two notable fundraising events have arisen as a result of science fiction author Jay Lake’s ongoing struggle with colon cancer, one to directly assist with medical funding and the other supporting a documentary about Lake.

An inventive fundraiser through youcaring.com is online, called “Sequence a Science Fiction Writer.” From the site: “a new technology is becoming available—one that may offer [Jay’s] doctors a better option for treating the cancer. We’re ...Read More

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