Obituaries

SF writer and editor Don Sakers, 62, died May 17, 2021 of a heart attack in Maryland. He published many novels and stories beginning in the ’80s, and was a review columnist for Analog starting in 2009. He was also a frequent convention guest.

Sakers was born June 16, 1958 in Yokosuka Japan, though he grew up in the US. He worked as a librarian at the Anne Arundel County ...Read More

Writer and editor Marvin Kaye, 83, died May 13, 2021 in hospice care in New York. Kaye was best known as a prolific editor and anthologist, and was also an accomplished fiction writer and playwright.

Marvin Nathan Kaye was born March 10, 1938 in Philadelphia PA. He attended Penn State, graduating with a BA in 1960 and a master’s in English literature and theater in 1962. He worked as a ...Read More

Writer Jan Stirling, 71, died May 8, 2021. She was best known for her Terion & Feric stories.

Janet Cathryn Moore was born April 6, 1950 in Milford MA. Her debut story “Were-Wench” appeared in 1995 in Chicks in Chainmail. She published five other stories on her own, plus another half-dozen in collaboration with her husband, SF writer S.M. Stirling (married 1988). Stirling, who lived in New Mexico, was ...Read More

Indian Bengali writer Anish Deb, 69, died April 28, 2021 in Kolkata, India of COVID-19. Born October 22, 1951 in Kolkata, Deb was a major Bengali SF writer. He began publishing in 1968, producing more than 50 books; recent genre work includes story collection Kishore Kalpabigyan Samagra (2005). He also wrote mysteries, thrillers, and popular science. As an editor, Deb produced numerous anthologies of crime, ghost, and horror fiction. His ...Read More

SF writer Margaret Wander Bonanno, 71, died unexpectedly of natural causes on April 8, 2021. She lived near Los Angeles. Bonanno wrote original SF as well as a number of Star Trek tie-ins, along with work in other genres.

Bonanno was born February 7, 1950 in New York City. Her original SF includes The Others series with The Others (1990), Otherwhere (1991), and OtherWise (1993) and the Preternatural series with ...Read More

Author, editor, and publisher John C. Pelan, 63, died April 12, 2021 in Albuquerque NM of an apparent heart attack. He lived in Gallup NM. Pelan was a significant figure in the dark fantasy and horror field, best known for founding numerous small presses and editing anthologies.

Pelan was born July 19, 1957 in Seattle WA. In 1986 he founded Axolotl Press, publishing work by James P. Blaylock, Charles de ...Read More

Editor and fan Wanda June Alexander, 69, died February 14, 2021 in Santa Fe NM. She was an editor for Tor from 1984 until 2006, where she worked with authors including George R.R. Martin. She was active in fandom starting in the ’70s.

Alexander was born June 15, 1951 and grew up in Montrose NY. She worked for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the ’70s, then returned ...Read More

Author Norton Juster, 91, died March 8, 2021 at home in Northampton MA of complications following a stroke. Juster is best known for his first book, children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), illustrated by Jules Feiffer and later adapted as a film and a stage musical. Other books include The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1963), collection Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys (1965), AS: A ...Read More

Artist Rowena Morrill, 76, died February 11, 2021 following years of poor health. Morrill was one of the most prominent artists in the field, with an active career that spanned decades. Some of her work has been collected in Hugo Award finalist The Fantastic Art of Rowena (1983) and The Art of Rowena (2000).

Born September 14, 1944, Morrill graduated from the University of Delaware in 1971 with an art ...Read More

Author Kathleen Ann Goonan, 68, died January 28, 2021. She was born May 14, 1952 in Cincinnati OH and at age eight moved to Hawaii for two years while her father worked for the Navy, after which the family moved to Washington DC. She got a degree in English from Virginia Tech in 1975, and earned her Association Montessori International Certification in 1976. She taught school for 13 years, ten ...Read More

Author and publisher Storm Constantine, 64, died January 14, 2021 following a long illness. She was best known as the author of the Wraeththu series, and as the publisher of Immanion Press, founded in 2003, which published her own work and that of other authors including Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and Brian Stableford.

Born October 12, 1956 in Stafford, England, Constantine attended art school in the 1970s, and worked in ...Read More

Artist JAEL, 83, died November 17, 2020. Jael’s artistic career spanned six decades, during which she published hundreds of SF book and magazine cover illustrations, in addition to fine arts work and other commissions. Some of her art was collected in Perceptualistics (2002). She was nominated for eight Chesley Awards from 1985-2002.

Jael Ashton was born October 31, 1937, and grew up in Utah. She worked as a professional ...Read More

Writer Anton Strout, 50, died unexpected on December 30, 2020. Strout was an author of urban fantasy, best known for his Simon Canderous series. He was also the host of the Once and Future Podcast, where he interviewed authors beginning in 2014, producing more than 200 episodes. He worked in publishing as well, as a longtime sales rep for Penguin Random House.

Anton Strout was born January 24, 1970 in ...Read More

Grand Master James Gunn, 97, died December 23, 2020. Gunn was one of the field’s true polymaths, excelling as an SF author, editor, and scholar. Gunn served as President of Science Fiction Writers of America in 1971-1972 and the organization honored him with a Damon Knight Grand Master Award in 2006. He was inducted into the SF Hall of Fame in 2015.

James Edwin Gunn was born July 12, 1923 ...Read More

Author Phyllis Eisenstein, 74, died December 7, 2020. She suffered a stroke in January 2020 and entered hospice care not long after.

Her first SF story was “The Trouble with the Past” (1971), co-written with husband Alex Eisenstein, who collaborated with her on many other works as well. Her debut Born to Exile (1978) collects her stories about Alaric the Minstrel, who also appeared in novel In the Red Lord’s ...Read More

Artist Richard Corben, 80, died December 2, 2020 after heart surgery.

Though best known for his comics work and album art (most famously for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, 1977), Corben also created numerous SF book covers, including for titles by Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Sprague de Camp, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, Damon Knight, and more. He produced interior art for magazines, and for fanzines devoted ...Read More

SF writer Dean Ing, 89, died July 21, 2020 at home in Ashland OR. He was best known for his technothrillers and near-future survivalist novels.

Ing was born June 17, 1931 in Austin TX. He served in the US Air Force from 1951-55, graduated from Fresno State University in 1956, earned a master’s at San Jose State University in 1970, and got his doctorate at the University of Oregon in ...Read More

SF writer and editor Ben Bova, 88, died November 29, 2020 after contracting COVID-19, developing pneumonia, and suffering a stroke. Bova was known both for his hard SF fiction and for editing major genre magazines Analog and Omni. In all, he produced more than 120 books.

Bova began his career in SF as a novelist with YA The Star Conquerors (1959), first in the Watchmen series, which also includes Star ...Read More

SF writer Debra Doyle, 67, died October 31 of a sudden cardiac event at home in Colebrook NH. She was best known for work written in collaboration with her husband, James D. Macdonald, including Mythopoeic Award winner Knight’s Wyrd (1992) and the Mageworlds space opera series.

Doyle was born November 30, 1952 in Florida, and grew up mostly in Texas. She married Macdonald in 1978. She was a frequent instructor ...Read More

Author Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, 58, who wrote as Rachel Caine, died November 1, 2020 of cancer shortly after entering hospice care. Caine was a prolific author of more than 50 books, best known for the Morganville Vampires series and the Weather Warden universe.

Roxanne Longstreet was born April 27, 1962 and grew up in West Texas. She went to Texas Tech University, graduating with an accounting degree and a minor ...Read More

Writer and fan Richard A. Lupoff, 85, died October 22, 2020. Lupoff wrote numerous works of SF, and was best known in fandom for co-editing fanzine Xero with his wife Pat Lupoff and Bhob Stewart; the ‘zine won a Hugo Award in 1963.

Richard Allen Lupoff was born February 21, 1935 in New York. He met Pat on a blind date in 1957, and they were married the following year. ...Read More

Author Terry Goodkind, 72, died September 17, 2020. Goodkind was a bestselling writer of epic fantasy.

Born January 11, 1948 in Omaha NE, Goodkind lived in Maine with his wife, Jeri, before they settled near Lake Las Vegas NV. He began publishing his popular Sword of Truth series with novel Wizard’s First Rule (1994) and continued with Stone of Tears (1995), Blood of the Fold (1996), Temple of the Winds ...Read More

Pioneering Black SF writer Charles R. Saunders, 73, reportedly died in May 2020, though his passing only became widely known in September. Saunders is best known for his fantasy Imaro (1981) and as the founder of the “sword and soul” subgenre, combining African history, culture, and mythology with sword-and-sorcery tropes.

Charles Robert Saunders was born July 12, 1946 in Elizabeth PA. He graduated from Lincoln University in 1968 with a ...Read More

Australian editor and fan John Bangsund, 81, died August 22, 2020 of complications from COVID-19. He lived in Preston, Victoria, Australia.

Born 1939 in Melbourne, Bangsund was active in Australian fandom beginning in 1963, and was a driving force in the scene through the 1980s. He was crucial in organizing the 1975 Worldcon in Melbourne, and served as toastmaster there. He was a charter member of the Nova Mob, a ...Read More

Author P.M. Griffin, 73, died August 10, 2020 in Brooklyn NY after an illness.

Pauline Margaret Griffin was born July 5, 1947 in Brooklyn. She began publishing SF with Star Commandos in 1986; the 12th volume in the series, War Prince, appeared in 2004. She collaborated with Andre Norton on Redline the Stars (1993) and Firehand (1994), and her novels Seakeep (1991) and Falcon Hope (1992) were set in ...Read More

Susan Ellison, 60, died August 1, 2020 at home, in the “Lost Aztec Temple of Mars,” in Sherman Oaks CA.

Susan Toth was born in 1960 in the British Midlands. She met Harlan Ellison at a convention in Scotland in 1985 and they married in 1986. She was his fifth wife and the love of his life: the two were inseparable for the next 32 years, until his death in ...Read More

Writer Rudolfo Anaya, 82, died June 28, 2020 at home in Albuquerque NM after a long illness. Anaya was a major Chicano writer, best known for his debut Bless Me, Ultima (1972), adapted as a film in 2013. His work occasionally had genre elements, notably in his Sonny Baca mystery series: Zia Summer (1995), Rio Grande Fall (1996), Shaman Winter (1999), and Jemez Spring (2005). Mystery Curse of the ChupaCabra ...Read More

Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 55, died June 19, 2020 of cancer in Los Angeles CA. Zafón wrote literary novels that often included speculative elements. His debut, YA The Prince of Mist, appeared in Spanish in 1993 and in English in 2010. He wrote three other novels for young adults, but his breakout book was adult debut The Shadow of the Wind (2001), an international bestseller that appeared in ...Read More

Critic and editor Colin Manlove, 78, died June 1, 2020 following a long illness.

He wrote extensive criticism, mostly on fantasy, beginning with Modern Fantasy: Five Studies (1975). Other books include The Impulse of Fantasy Literature (1983), Science Fiction: Ten Explorations (1986), C.S. Lewis: His Literary Achievement (1987), Christian Fantasy: From 1200 to the Present (1992), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World: A Reader’s Companion (1993),  ...Read More

SF Scholar Marshall B. Tymn, 82, died May 24, 2020 of pneumonia. Tymn was an essential figure in the field in the ’70s and ’80s, and did much to further the study of SF in academia. He won a Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions from the Science Fiction Research Association in 1990, and the Robert A. Collins Service Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in ...Read More

Chinese SF writer Ye Yonglie, 79, died May 15, 2020 in Shanghai. He published over 50 books, including SF, children’s books, mysteries, and popular science. He was often called the “Chinese Isaac Asimov” for his prolific output of fiction and non-fiction.

Ye Yonglie was born August 30, 1940 in Wenzhou, China. He began writing from a young age, with his first poem published at age 11, and attended Beijing University, ...Read More