Obituaries

Author Patricia A. McKillip, 74, died May 6, 2022. She was best known for her fantasy novels for children and young adults, including the Riddle-Master trilogy.

Patricia Anne McKillip was born February 29, 1948 in Salem OR. She attended the College of Notre Dame, Belmont, and San Jose State University in California, receiving a BA in 1971 and an MA in English in 1972.

Her first publications were short children’s ...Read More

Russian-Ukrainian SF writer Sergey Dyachenko, 77, died May 5, 2022 in California. Dyachenko was best known for co-authoring over 30 titles with his wife, Marina Dyachenko (née Shirshova), notably Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire winner Vita Nostra (2007), translated into English in 2018.

Sergey Sergeyevich Dyachenko was born  April 14, 1945 in Kyiv, Ukraine, then part of the USSR. He earned a master’s in biology, then a medical degree, and worked ...Read More

PRISCILLA TOLKIEN, 92, died February 28, 2022 after a brief illness. She was the youngest, and last surviving, child of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s, and was vice president of the Tolkien Society from 1986.

Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien was born June 18, 1929 in Oxford, England, where her father taught. She had a stuffed teddy bear named Bingo as a child, and in early drafts of The Lord of ...Read More

SF writer Bill Johnson, 65, died March 17, 2022. He had Marfan syndrome.

Johnson attended the Clarion workshop in 1975, and his first publication was “Stormfall” in 1977. He published around 30 stories in all, including Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award finalist “We Will Drink a Fish Together” (1997). Some of his work is collected in Dakota Dreamin’ (1999). He co-wrote “Three Can Keep a Secret” with his college ...Read More

Author and artist Shirley Hughes, 94, died February 25, 2022. She was a prolific writer and illustrator of children’s books, with a career that spanned more than six decades. She wrote more 50 books for children, and illustrated over 200,

Hughes was born July 16, 1927 and grew up in West Kirby, Wirral, England. She attended Liverpool College of Art, then worked as a set builder and costume designer for ...Read More

SF writer Andy Remic, 50, died February 26, 2022 of cancer. Remic was a prolific author of SF and fantasy novels.

His debut novel Spiral (2003) launched the Spiral series, which includes Quake (2004) and Warhead (2005). The Combat-K sequence is War Machine (2007), BioHell (2008), Hardcore (2010) and Cloneworld (2011). His Clockwork Vampire Chronicles has Keli’s Legend (2009), Soul Stealers (2010), and Vampire Warlords (2011). The Books of the ...Read More

Agent and editor CHUCK VERRILL died Janu­ary 9, 2022 after a long illness. Charles Verrill was an editor at Viking Penguin for ten years before joining Liz Darhansoff’s agency and becoming a literary agent in 1989. In 1991, he became a partner at Darhansoff & Verrill. He was best known as the longtime agent for Stephen King. ...Read More

Author SALLY GWYLAN, 67, died October 8, 2021 in a traffic accident in Albuquerque NM. Gwylan at­tended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop in 1985, and her debut SF story, ‘‘Salt’’, appeared in The Infinite Matrix in 2002.

Other published stories include “In the Icehouse” in Asimov’s (2003) and ‘‘Rapture, Parts 1 & 2’’ in Strange Horizons (2004). Her final story was “Fleeing Oslyge” in Clarkesworld (2018). ...Read More

Brazilian pulp magazine and adventure fiction expert ATHOS EICHLER CARDOSO, 87, died December 19, 2021, during a flight on his way to a meeting of retired Brazilian Army officers. He was 87.

Born July 12th, 1934, Cardoso wrote O Que É Aventura (What Is Adventure; 1987). After retiring from the Army as a colonel, he studied Journalism at the University of Brasília and earned a master’s degree in social ...Read More

SF writer Melissa Mead, 54, died February 15, 2022. She began publishing short fiction in 1999, and had more than 80 publications in magazines and anthologies, plus one novel, Between Worlds (2005). Mead was born November 4, 1967. She had cerebral palsy, and was a dedicated advocate for the rights of the disabled. She worked for a time at Clover Patch in New York, a summer camp for individuals with ...Read More

Editor and author Tom Dupree, 72, died February 7, 2022 at home in New York City of cardio-respiratory arrest. Dupree was an editor at Bantam and HarperCollins, and co-editor of anthology Full Spectrum 5 with Jennifer Hershey & Janna Silverstein (1995). He began publishing short fiction with “The Wild Bunch” (1995), and several more stories appeared in anthologies under his own name and as Randall G. Thomas.

Dupree was born ...Read More

Cree author Harold R. Johnson, 64, died February 9, 2022 of lung cancer in Canada. He wrote 11 books, including novels with speculative elements, notably Corvus (2015) and The Björkan Sagas (2021).

Johnson was born in 1957 in Saskatchewan, and was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy and was a trapper, logger, and miner before attending Harvard and becoming a lawyer, ...Read More

Argentinian author Angélica Gorodischer, 93, died February 5, 2022 at home in Rosario, Argentina. Gorodischer was a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who wrote several important works of SF.

Angélica Beatriz del Rosario Arcal de Gorodischer was born July 28, 1928 in Buenos Aires, but relocated to Rosario with her family at age seven, and settled there.

She is best known for Kalpa Imperial (translated by Ursula K. Le ...Read More

Writer Ron Goulart, 89, died January 14, 2022. Goulart was a prolific author in multiple genres, producing more than 180 titles in his long career.

Ronald Joseph Goulart was born January 13, 1933 in Berkeley CA, and worked in advertising after college. His first SF story, “Letters to the Editor”, appeared in 1952, and he published a number of stories before debut novel The Sword Swallower (1968), first of his ...Read More

SF writer J. Brian Clarke, 93, died January 17, 2022.

James Brian Clarke was born May 23, 1928 in Birmingham, England, but spent most of his life in Canada. He began publishing genre work with “Artifact” in Analog in June 1969, where he continued to publish stories for the rest of his career. Debut novel Expediter (1990) includes material first published there, as does second book Alphanauts (2006), winner of ...Read More

Fan and convention organizer Bill Wright, 84, died January 17, 2022 in the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, the day before his 85th birthday.

Wright, born 1937, was a stalwart of Australian fandom since the late 1950s. He was a founding member of both ANZAPA and the Nova Mob; HonSec of the Eighth Australian Science Fiction Convention (the eighth Australian Natcon) in 1969; secretary of Aussiecon in 1975; awards administrator ...Read More

Brazilian illustrator JOSÉ LUIZ BENÍCIO DA FONSECA, who worked as Benício, 84, died De­cember 7, 2021 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Born September 14, 1936 in Rio Pardo, in the Brazilian South, he was a nationwide name in the fields of pulp art, pin-up art, movie posters, and advertisements.

After a stint plying piano for a radio show in Porto Alegre when he was only 15, Benício initially dedicated ...Read More

Writer Dave Wolverton, 64, who also wrote as David Farland, died January 14, 2022 in St. George UT after suffering a severe head injury falling down the stairs the previous day.

He was best known for his Runelords series, written as David Farland: The Sum of All Men (1998; published in the US as The Runelords), Brotherhood of the Wolf (1999), Wizardborn (2000), The Lair of Bones (2003), Sons ...Read More

Author and conrunner Jane E. Hawkins, 70, died January 7, 2022 in Seattle WA. Best known as a convention organizer, she also wrote gaming tie-in novel Quantum Gate (1996).

Jane Emily Hawkins was born March 11, 1951 in Davenport IA and showed an early aptitude for advanced mathematics. She attended Case University as part of the first engineering class to admit women, and worked at Bell Labs in computing. She ...Read More

Author John Jos. Miller, 67, died January 5, 2022 at his home in Albuquerque NM. Miller was best known for his work in the long-running (since 1987) Wild Cards shared-universe series of original anthologies and novels, edited by George R.R. Martin.

John Joseph Miller (who wrote as John Miller, John J. Miller and John Jos. Miller) was born March 28, 1954 in central New York. He started reading the works ...Read More

Fan, conrunner, and bookseller Willie Siros, 69, died January 5, 2022.

William Siros was born August 1952 in El Paso TX. He earned a BA in political science in 1974, and briefly attended graduate school for political theory. He began attending conventions in 1974, and chaired early Texas SF conventions Solarcon I and II (1975 and 1976). He produced a fanzine, Cambion, around the same time. Siros co-founded the Fandom ...Read More

Dracula scholar Elizabeth Miller, 82, died January 2, 2022 in Toronto, Canada.

Her non-fiction volumes include A Dracula Handbook (2005), Reflections on Dracula: Ten Essays (1997), Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow (1998), Dracula: Sense & Nonsense (2000), Dracula, a Documentary Volume (2004), and Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula (2008, with Robert Eighteen-Bisang). She co-edited The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker (2012, with Dacre Stoker). Miller was the founding editor ...Read More

Bibliographer William G. Contento, 74, died December 13, 2021 after a long struggle with prostate cancer. Contento was well known in the field for his landmark bibliographies, including the Locus Index to Science Fiction, and he had a long association with this magazine. His work was invaluable for researchers and scholars in the field.

William Guy Contento was born April 13, 1947 in Cortland NY. He was a computer ...Read More

Artist Chris Achilleos, 74, died December 6, 2021. The prolific illustrator was known for his cover art, film designs, movie posters, and album covers, among other work.

Christos Achilléos was born in 1947 in Famagusta, Cyprus. At age 12 he moved to the UK, where he attended the Hornsey College of Art, graduating in 1969. He got his start painting book covers, including for Edgar Rice Burroughs novels and Doctor ...Read More

Writer and artist Diana G. Gallagher, 75, died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Gallagher wrote space opera The Alien Dark (1990), but was best known for her tie-in work for properties including Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and Star Trek. She was active in fandom as an artist, winning a Best Fan Artist Hugo in 1989 (as Diana Gallagher Wu). She was ...Read More

Editor and publisher Jeremy G. Byrne, 57, died November 25, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia after a long illness.

Byrne co-founded Eidolon Publications in 1990 and co-edited all 30 issues of Eidolon: The Journal of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy until its closure in 2000. He was an integral part of publishing Terry Dowling’s The Mars You Have in Me, Storm Constantine’s The Thorn Boy, Robin Pen’s The Secret ...Read More

NPR books editor Petra Mayer, 46, died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism November 3, 2021 at Holy Cross Hospital in Maryland.

Mayer was the books editor for National Public Radio’s cultural desk, where she was a tireless advocate for science fiction and fantasy literature and comics, and often hired SF authors to write reviews. She also covered genre events for the radio, including Comic-Con.

Mayer was born in 1974 and ...Read More

SF writer Robert Thurston, 84, died October 20, 2021 in Ridgefield Park NJ.

Thurston attended the first Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop in 1968, and his debut SF story, “Stop Me Before I Tell More”, appeared in Orbit 9 (1971). His final story was “Nobody Like Josh” in Asimov’s (2016). First novel Alicia II appeared in 1978. Other SF novels include Set of Wheels (1983, expanded from 1971 story “Wheels”), ...Read More

Writer Catherine M. Morrison, 52, died September 25, 2021 in London after a brief illness.

Morrison was a member of the Clarion class of 2003, and also attended the Blue Heaven workshop. She published several stories, including Darrell Award winner “Elvis in the Attic” in Sci Fiction (2004), with others appearing in Fantasy and small press publications.

Born January 13, 1969 in Stoughton MA, Morrison was known as Cathy and ...Read More

SF writer, fan, and award administrator Jim Fiscus, 76, died suddenly on November 7, 2021 at home in Oregon.

Fiscus began publishing short SF in 1986, with a handful of additional stories appearing in the 2000s. He was best known in the field as administrator of the Endeavour Awards honoring Pacific Northwest authors and for his decades of work as a SFWA volunteer. He hosted SFWA events at Westercons in ...Read More