Michael Shea (1946-2014) wrote the World Fantasy Award-winning novel Nifft the Lean and his story “The Growlimb” earned him a second award in 2004. After coming across a used copy of Jack Vance’s The Eyes of the Overworld in an Alaskan hotel, Shea wrote his first novel, novel A Quest for Simbilis, which continued the story and was authorized by Jack Vance. The book was short-listed for the British Fantasy Award. Shea wrote numerous other stories and novels, including the Nebula and Hugo nominated “The Autopsy.” When not writing, Shea spent quite a bit of time hitchhiking around the US and Europe and working a variety of jobs, ranging from language instruction to construction to painting houses. Shea’s writing was reminiscent in many ways of not only Vance, but also Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith.