Author Ray Garton, 61, died April 21, 2024, just weeks after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Garton was the author of nearly 70 books, most horror.
Ray Garton, Jr. was born December 2, 1962 in Redding CA, and grew up in Anderson CA with his adopted parents. He worked at Pinnacle Books in New York City in the 1980s.
Garton’s debut novel, Seductions, appeared in 1984. Other ...Read More
Read moreArtist, editor, and author Trina Robbins, 85, died April 10, 2024 of a stroke in San Francisco CA. Though best known as a legendary feminist comics writer and artist, she was also a science fiction fan and occasional SF writer, with stories including “Lines from a Diary” (1992) and “Innana: Witchwoman” (2011). She wrote and illustrated a comics adaptation of Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover in 1985, and was ...Read More
Read moreAuthor John Barth, 93, died April 2, 2024 at a hospice in Bonita Springs FL. Barth was famed for his (often hilarious) experimental fiction.
His debut The Floating Opera appeared in 1956, but he attained literary fame with his third novel, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960). His innovations occasionally led him into speculative territory, notably in Giles Goat-Boy (1966) and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (1991). His 1967 essay ...Read More
Read moreAuthor Sharon Green, 79, died February 17, 2022 in Old Bridge NJ.
Green’s first publications were the Jalav/Amazon Warrior series, starting with Crystals of Mida (1982) and continuing with An Oath to Mida (1983), Chosen of Mida (1984), The Will of the Gods (1985), and To Battle the Gods (1986). The Terrilian Sequence began with The Warrior Within (1982) and includes The Warrior Enchained (1983), The Warrior Rearmed (1984), The ...Read More
Read moreAuthor Kirk Dougal, 57, died March 18, 2024 in a Fort Wayne IN hospital of cancer.
His Fallen Angel series includes Dreams of Ivory and Gold (2014) and Valleys of the Earth (2017). His epic fantasy Legacy of Bones (2020) launched series A Tale of Bone & Steel, which also includes Black Shadow Rising (2020), Wings of the Storm (2020), Joiner of Bones (2020), Dragonkiller (2021), Path of Shadows (2021), ...Read More
Read moreConvention organizer and editor Deb Geisler, 66, died March 23, 2024. She was in home hospice care with lung and heart disease. Geisler was best known for her work running Boston-area conventions, including a Worldcon.
Deborah M. Geisler was born September 20, 1957 in Dayton OH. She attended Ohio University, where she earned bachelor and master’s degrees, and got her PhD at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She taught communication and journalism ...Read More
Read moreAuthor James A. Moore, 58, died March 27, 2024. Moore was an award-winning author of more than 50 fantasy and horror titles.
James Arthur Moore was born September 3, 1965 in Atlanta GA. He began publishing work of genre interest with House of Secrets (1995, with Kevin Andrew Murphy), and his first solo novel was Hell-Storm (1996). Other notable books include Under the Overtree (2000), Fireworks (2001), Bram Stoker Award ...Read More
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Author and professor of mathematics Vernor Vinge, 79, died from Parkinson’s disease on March 20, 2024. He was noted for introducing the technological singularity concept (AKA the Singularity) and known for his gripping hard science fiction.
Vernor Vinge was born in Waukesha Wisconsin on October 2, 1944. He was married to fellow science fiction author Joan D. Vinge from 1972 to 1979.
His first published work of science fiction was ...Read More
Read morePublisher and author Sue Arroyo, 57, died on February 26, 2024 after falling at home in Brentwood TN.
Arroyo was born July 2, 1966 in New York, and worked as a software engineer before founding her own company, Trident Technologies, in 2006. She sold her stake in the company in 2019 to focus on publishing. Arroyo was founder and CEO of small press CamCat Books, launched in 2018. The press ...Read More
Read moreArtist Dick Jenssen, 88, also known in fandom as Ditmar, died March 7, 2024. Jensen was active in Australian fandom for many years, and was a prolific fan and cover artist. Australia’s annual achievement awards, the Ditmars, are named after him. He won the 2016 Rotsler Award for his artwork in fanzines.
Martin James Ditmar Jenssen was born in 1935, and was a part of Australian fandom since 1952, when ...Read More
Read moreJaime Lee Moyer was discovered deceased on February 29, 2024, apparently of natural causes.
Her friends C.C. Finlay & Rae Carson organized a wellness check with the East Lansing MI police after failing to hear from Moyer for more than ten days, and officers found her deceased at home.
Moyer was from Fremont CA, and attended Ohlone College before moving to Texas, where she studied at Mt. San Antonio College. ...Read More
Read moreAuthor, academic, critic, editor, and translator Brian Stableford, 75, died February 24, 2024 after a long illness. He was married twice and is survived by his son Leo and daughter Katy.
Brian Michael Stableford was born July 25, 1948 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England. He attended the University of York, getting a degree in biology, followed by a doctorate in sociology; his doctoral thesis was The Sociology of Science Fiction. ...Read More
Read moreAuthor Steve Miller, 73, best known for the Liaden Universe series co-written with wife Sharon Lee, died suddenly on February 20, 2024, as reported by Lee on Facebook.
Steven Richard Miller was born July 31, 1950 in Baltimore MD. He attended the University of Maryland, where he worked on college newpaper The Retriever and founded the science fiction club. He was the curator of the UMBC Albin O. Kuhn Library ...Read More
Read moreAuthor, editor, and scholar Christopher Priest, 80, died of cancer February 2, 2024, in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. He was a major figure in the SF field, famed for his ambitious fiction and erudite criticism and non-fiction.
Christopher Mackenzie Priest was born in Cheadle, Cheshire, England on July 14, 1943. Priest was married to author Lisa Tuttle from 1981-87, and to writer Leigh Kennedy from 1988-2011. ...Read More
Read moreHorror writer Brian Lumley, 86, died January 2, 2024. Lumley was best known for his Mythos fiction, and for the bestselling Necroscope series.
Lumley was born December 2, 1937 in County Durham in England, and served in the military police in the British Army for 22 years before retiring in 1980 to write full time.
He published his first story in the late ‘60s, and became known in the ‘70s ...Read More
Read moreAuthor Howard Waldrop, 77, died January 14, 2024. Waldrop was one of our most accomplished and celebrated authors of short fiction, known for his erudite, playful, and allusive work. His most famous story, “The Ugly Chickens” (1980), won World Fantasy and Nebula Awards, and was a Hugo Award finalist.
Waldrop’s first work of genre interest was “Lunchbox” in Analog (1972), and he went on to publish scores of stories, including ...Read More
Read moreSF writer Tom Purdom, 87, died January 14, 2024.
Thomas Edward Purdom was born April 19, 1936 in New Haven CT, and lived in Philadelphia PA with his wife, Sara Wescoat Purdom. He began publishing SF with “Grief for a Man” (1957), and debut novel I Want the Stars appeared in 1964. Other books include The Tree Lord of Imeten (1966), Five Against Arlane (1967), Reduction in Arms (1971), and ...Read More
Read moreAuthor and critic David J. Skal, 71, died January 1, 2024 in a car accident in Los Angeles CA.
David John Skal was born June 21, 1952 in Garfield Heights OH. He attended Ohio University, where he studied journalism and worked as a film critic and editor on the college newspaper, graduating in 1974. He later worked in theater, including with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the ...Read More
Read moreAuthor and scholar Fred Chappell, 87, died January 5, 2024 in Greensboro NC. Chapell was an author of literary and weird fiction, best known in the field for his 1968 novel Dagon and for World Fantasy Award-winning stories “The Somewhere Doors ” (1991) and The Lodger (1993).
Fred Davis Chappell was born May 28, 1936 in Canton NC and attended Duke University. He spent 40 years as an English professor ...Read More
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Author Terry Bisson, 81, died in the early hours of January 10, 2024.
Terry Ballantine Bisson was born February 12, 1942 in Kentucky. After attending Grinnell College in Iowa from 1960-62, and batting around LA and NY, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville in 1964. In 1962, he married Deirde Holst, mother of his two sons and daughter; they divorced in 1966. From 1966-70 he lived ...Read More
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Israeli editor and translator Emanuel Lottem, 79, died January 7, 2024.
Emanual Lottem obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tel Aviv; a master’s from the London School of Oriental and African Studies and a PhD from the London School of Economics. He initially worked as a university lecturer, then entered the diplomatic service, serving as a consul in New York and as a special adviser in the Israeli ...Read More
Read moreSwedish author and translator BERTIL FALK, 90, died October 14, 2023 after a long illness.
I have never known anyone with so much energy as author-publisher-reporter-translator-SF-expert-etc. Bertil Falk. Now this hurricane of a force is no longer with us. His Swedish translationof James Joyce’s ‘‘untranslatable’’ Finnegans Wake came out last year, a work of love taking 60-plus years. We also saw his massive, three-volume history of science fiction in ...Read More
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SF writer Richard Bowes, 79, died December 24, 2023.
Richard Dirrane Bowes was born January 8, 1944 in Boston MA, but moved to New York City in 1965 after graduating from Hofstra University. He was a mainstay of the SF scene there, and most of his work was set in alternate versions of the city. In discussing his life as a New Yorker, he wrote, “I was present at the ...Read More
Read moreAuthor David Drake, 78, died December 10, 2023 in Silk Hope NC. Drake was the author of more than 80 works of SF and fantasy, best known for the Hammer’s Slammer’s series and other works of military SF.
David Allen Drake was born September 24, 1945 in Dubuque IA. He attended law school at Duke, but his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the US Army, serving in ...Read More
Read moreWriter D.G. Compton, 93, died November 10, 2023 in Maine. David Guy Compton was born in London on August 19, 1930, later settling in the US.
His agents at the Virginia Kidd Agency sent the following tribute.
We had the great pleasure of having David visit us in Milford for the Black Bear Film Festival the year Death Watch, the 1979 Bertrand Tavernier film based on his book, The ...Read More
Read moreAustralian fan, artist, and photographer HELENA BINNS, 81, died September 18, 2023 in Wantirna, Australia. She was a stalwart of Melbourne fandom since 1958, when she made contact with the Melbourne Science Fiction Club. She has been both artist and writer for MSFC publications, and for the last 50 years was the photographer for most conventions held in Melbourne, including four Aussiecons.
Born Margaret Duce on December 18, 1941, ...Read More
Read moreFan PAT DIGGS, 82, died September 27, 2023 following a long illness. She was a longtime and beloved fixture of Bay Area fandom, a regular Locus collator, and volunteer for the SF in SF reading series. She often helped run dealer’s room tables for Locus, Tachyon Publications, and other publishers and booksellers. She was an early and active participant in Star Trek fandom, writing and distriuting fan fiction.
Patricia ...Read More
Read moreWriter A.S. Byatt, 87, died November 16, 2023. Though best known for her literary fiction and critical writing, Byatt occasionally wrote work including speculative elements. Books of genre interest include Booker Prize winner Possession: A Romance (1990) and Ragnarok: The End of the Gods (2011). The Children’s Book (2009) is based on the life of children’s writer E. Nesbit.
Byatt’s short work often incorporated fantastic elements, and appears in collections ...Read More
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Author Weston Ochse, 58, died in November 18, 2023 in Tucson AZ after a long period of poor health. Ochse was best known as a horror and military SF writer.
Ochse was born June 20, 1965 in Gillette WY, and grew up all over the US, graduating from high school in Chattanooga TN. He then enlisted in the US Army, becoming an intelligence officer, and served until 2004. He attended ...Read More
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Author and editor Michael Bishop, 78, died November 13, 2023 after entering hospice care in late June.
Michael Lawson Bishop was born November 12, 1945 in Lincoln NE. He spent much of his youth with his mother in a small town near Wichita KS, while visiting his father at Air Force bases around the country during the summers. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s (1967) and ...Read More
Read moreSF writer Sherrie Cronin, 68, died October 23, 2023 of cancer in western North Carolina.
Sherrie Roth was born December 1, 1954 in Hays KS. She attended Northwestern University and the Colorado School of Mines, and had a long career as a geophysicist.
Her debut short story “The Fare” appeared in the November 1979 issue of Asimov’s. From 2012 to 2022, she self-published six books in the 46. Ascending SF ...Read More
Read morePublisher and author Tim Underwood, 75, died October 11, 2023 in hospice.
Tim Edward Underwood was born January 12, 1948 in Sault Ste Marie MI. Underwood co-founded small press Underwood Miller in 1976 with Chuck Miller; their first book was a hardcover of The Dying Earth by Jack Vance that same year. They went on to publish works by Philip K. Dick, Robert E. Howard, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, and ...Read More
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