Obituaries

Author Kerry Greenwood, 70, died March 26, 2025. She was best known for her historical mystery series about Phryne Fisher, adapted as TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, but she also wrote SF, along with historical fiction, books for young adults, and plays.

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood was born June, 17 1954 and grew up near Melbourne, Australia. She attended Maribyrnong College and the University of Melbourne, earning a law ...Read More

Author Todd Grimson, 72, died January 30, 2025. He was best known for surreal horror novel Brand New Cherry Flavor (1996), adapted as a streaming TV series in 2021.

Grimson was a pen name for Todd Spillum, who was born February 2, 1952 in Seattle WA and grew up in Portland OR. Spillum worked for the Veterans Administration Hospital and in a Portland emergency room, experiences that inspired debut novel ...Read More

Author L.J. Smith, 66, died March 8, 2025 in Danville CA after a long illness. Smith was best known for the bestselling Vampire Diaries series and the Night World series.

Lisa Jane Smith was born September 4, 1958 in Fort Lauderdale FL and grew up in Villa Park in Southern California. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Francisco State University, and worked for three years as ...Read More

Artist Chris Moore, 78, died February 7, 2025 at home in the UK. Moore was a prolific artist, best known for his hard SF book covers and album artwork by artists including Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac.

Christopher Norton Moore was born June 1, 1947 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He attended Doncaster Art School, Maidstone College of Art, and the Royal College of Art, graduating from the latter in 1972. ...Read More

Author Tom Robbins, 92, died February 9, 2024 at home in La Conner WA. Robbins was best known for his absurdist, irreverent novels, which inspired a devoted cult following and included numerous bestsellers. While his work was rooted in 1960s counterculture, he had a devoted readership that spanned generations.

Most of his works had speculative (or absurdist) elements, among them Another Roadside Attraction (1971), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), ...Read More

Author Andrew Pyper, 56, died January 3, 2025 at home in Toronto, Canada of cancer. Pyper published 14 novels, many thrillers with speculative elements.

Andrew Derek Pyper was born January 4, 1968 in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from McGill University with an English degree, and went to law school at the University of Toronto. Though he passed the Bar in 1996, he never practiced law, instead becoming a full-time ...Read More

Author George Zebrowski, 78, died December 20, 2024.

Jerzy Tadeus Zebrowski (AKA George Thaddeus Zebrowski) was born December 28, 1945 in Villach, Austria. He moved to the US in 1951, and attended an early Clarion Writers’ Workshop in 1968.

Zebrowski’s first publications were collaborations with Jack Dann in 1970 (“Traps” and “Dark, Dark, the Dead Star”), and his first solo story was “The Water Sculptor of Station 233” (1970). He ...Read More

Writer T. Jackson King, 76, died December 3, 2024 in Santa Fe NM.

Thomas Jackson King, Jr. was born May 24, 1948 in Houston TX. He was a journalist, activist, and archaeologist.

Debut novel Retread Shop appeared in 1988. His Vigilante series began with Star Vigilante (2012) and continued with Nebula Vigilante (2013), Galactic Vigilante (2013), and Anarchate Vigilante (2014). The Aliens series includes Earth vs. Aliens (2014), Humans vs. ...Read More

Author John Marsden, 74, died December 18, 2024 in Australia. He wrote more than 40 books in various genres and was best known for his Tomorrow series of young-adult SF novels.

Marsden was born September 27, 1950 in Melbourne, Australia. He moved to Sydney with his family at age ten and later attended Sydney University for a time before dropping out. He worked various jobs before becoming an English teacher, ...Read More

Author Trent Zelazny, 48, died on November 28, 2024 of acute liver failure.

The son of SF writer Roger Zelazny, he began publishing short SF in 1999, and went on to produce over 30 stories, with some collected in The Day the Leash Gave Way and Other Stories (2009). He also edited anthology Mirages: Tales from Authors of the Macabre (2012) and co-edited Shadows & Reflections: A Roger Zelazny Tribute ...Read More

Philosopher Anand Vaidya, 48, died October 11, 2024 of cancer. Vaidya cofounded the Science Fiction and Philosophy Society in 2022, “to explore connections between science fiction and philosophy, to cross-pollinate new ideas, and to boldly go where no one has thought before!”

Anand Jayprakash Vaidya was born January 4, 1976 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up mostly in Saudi Arabia, but also spent time in India, Germany, and various parts ...Read More

Author, actor, critic, and filmmaker Tim Sullivan, 76, died November 10, 2024 in hospice care in Newport News VA.

Timothy Robert Sullivan was born June 9, 1948 in Bangor ME. He studied literature and got his degree at Florida Atlantic University, and spent time in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Southern California.

He began publishing SF with “Tachyon Rage” in 1977 (as Timothy Robert Sullivan). “Zeke” (1981) was a Nebula Awards ...Read More

Author Bruce Boston, 81, died November 11, 2024. He was best known as a poet, but was also a prolific prose writer. He was the recipient of the first Grand Master award presented by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) in 1999.

Bruce David Boston was born July 16, 1943 in Chicago IL and grew up in Southern California. He moved to the Bay Area in 1961 and attended UC ...Read More

Author Phil Rickman, 74, died October 29, 2024. Rickman was a journalist and a prolific author of crime and supernatural fiction, best known for the Merrily Watkins mystery series, adapted into a TV series in 2015.

Philip Rickman was born in Lancashire and lived in Wales. He was a reporter for Wales Today in the 1980s, and worked in radio broadcasting for over two decades, hosting literature show Phil the ...Read More

Longtime Barnes & Noble head LEONARD RIGGIO, 83, died August 27, 2024 in Manhattan. He had Alzheimer’s.

Leonard Stephen Riggio was born February 28, 1941 in New York, and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. After graduating in 1958, he took night classes at NYU for a while before dropping out. He founded a small book­shop, the Student Book Exchange, in 1965. In 1971, he purchased New York bookshop Barnes ...Read More

Writer and publishing professional Zoe Kaplan, 28, died October 9, 2024 of complications from diabetes.

Kaplan began publishing short fiction of genre interest with “Pink Marble” in 2021, and published several other stories in magazines and anthologies. She also worked in publishing, spending time at Tor before joining Simon & Schuster in 2021, first as a member of the production team, and later as a managing editorial associate, working extensively ...Read More

Canadian fan and author FRAN SKENE, 86, died June 17, 2024. Skene was active in Van­couver fandom in the ’70s and ’80s, chairing Westercon 30 in 1977, among other conven­tions, and was a major part of the ‘‘Vancouver in ’84’’ Worldcon bid. She also produced fanzines, and was a guest of honor at numerous conventions. Born December 18, 1937, Skene worked as a librarian. After her retirement, she published ...Read More

Scholar and editor H. BRUCE FRANK­LIN, 90, died May 19, 2024 in El Cerrito CA. He taught one of the first university courses on science fiction literature while he was at Stanford University, and also wrote and edited numerous works of SF interest.

Howard Bruce Franklin was born February 28, 1934 in Brooklyn NY. He worked his way through college, graduating from Amherst College in 1955. He served in ...Read More

Author M.J. Engh, 91, died at home July 11, 2024 in Garfield WA.

Mary Jane Gholson was born January 26, 1933. She attended the University of Chicago, studying history, archaeology, and library science, and worked as an editor in the US and Japan. Upon returning to the US, she worked as a freelance editor and substitute teacher. In 1971 she attended the University of Oklahoma, earning a Master of Library ...Read More

Poet Deborah P. Kolodji, 64, died July 21, 2024 at home in Temple City CA. She was well known in science fiction poetry circles, and was best known for her haiku.

Kolodji was born August 11, 1959 in Long Beach CA. She began publishing her work in the 1970s, mostly Star Trek-inspired poems in fanzines. She attended the University of Southern California, graduating with a mathematics degree, and worked ...Read More

SF artist and editor Taral Wayne, 72, died at home on July 31, 2024.

Wayne MacDonald was born October 12, 1951 in Toronto, Canada. He took the pen name Taral from an invented language, Siroihin, introduced in one of his fanzines. He joined the Ontario Science Fiction Club in 1971, contributing works of art and writing to fanzines and semiprozines, and publishing his own journals, including Delta Psi, New Toy, ...Read More

Bookseller and publisher DOUG LEWIS, 69, died May 20, 2024 of complications of diabetes. Born 1955, Lewis and his wife Tomi owned and operated the Little Bookshop of Horror/Roadkill Press in Arvada CO and won a World Fantasy Award in the non-professional category in 1993. ...Read More

Author, editor, and scholar Robert Irwin, 77, died June 28, 2024 in London. Irwin is the author of several books of genre interest, most notably his debut novel The Arabian Nightmare (1983).

Robert Graham Irwin was born August 23, 1946 in Guildford, Surrey in the UK. He attended Epsom College, studied history at the University of Oxford, and did graduate work at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Irwin ...Read More

Author John Maddox Roberts, 76, died May 23, 2024 in Estancia NM.

Roberts was born in Ohio on June 25, 1947. He began publishing with SF novel The Strayed Sheep of Charun (1977; revised as Cestus Dei, 1983). Other works include the Spacer series, with Space Angel (1979) and Spacer: Window of the Mind (1988); the Cingulum sequence, with The Cingulum (1985), Cloak of Illusion (1985), and The Sword, ...Read More

Artist, author, and musician MaryAnn Harris, 71, died June 3, 2024 after a long struggle with the Powassan virus. Harris was married to author Charles de Lint and was his frequent collaborator as manager, editor, and illustrator.

Harris was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She met de Lint in 1974, and they married in 1980. She served as de Lint’s business manager and first editor, and created the cover art ...Read More