Thomas Jackson King, Jr., (24 May 1948–3 December 2024) was an archeologist, an activist, a prolific writer of science-fiction, horror, and urban fantasy, and an award-winning journalist. He wrote articles for The SFWA Bulletin and SFWA Handbook, and served as the SFWA Election Committee Chair. 

King was a well-traveled archeologist who started his writing career as an anti-war journalist, publishing the first English-language underground newspaper in Japan, and organizing protests against the US War in Vietnam in Japan, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. A lifelong sci-fi reader, and compelled by a need to write the stories in his head, he began to write fiction at 38, with his first novel, Retread Shop, published at age 40. He went on to write dozens of adventure novels, contemporary fantasies, and short stories across science-fiction, fantasy, and horror, focused on explorations of culture, adaptation, archetypes, and individual choice, many from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1996, King was the chair of the Philip K. Dick Award jury. He continued to write until the last weeks of his life.

King was the creator and moderator for Shoptalk, a group of new and established science-fiction and fantasy authors that shared their contracts and royalty statements in the early to mid-nineties. Of Shoptalk, past SFWA President Michael Capobianco says, “As a newly published writer, Shoptalk was instrumental to my education in the business of writing. To see other writers’ actual contracts and royalty statements was a revelation, and T. Jackson King was the perfect moderator to keep things on an even keel.”

Writer Kevin J. Anderson recollects, “Early in my career Tom King was a great friend and information resource. He published his first novel, Retread Shop, the same year I published mine, and we learned a lot of the business together and shared what we learned. He was indefatigable at conventions promoting his novel. He always believed in his work, but with the vagaries of the publishing world, he dropped out of sight for quite a while. I was very happy to receive a surprise email from him a decade ago to let me know he was back and happily (and successfully) publishing his own work as an indie author. Tom never stopped writing. Even with a recent spate of health issues, he was determined to get his next novel out in early 2025. Alas, we’ll never get to read it now.”

T. Jackson King lived 76 years.