L. Neil Smith (b.1946) died on August 27. Smith began publishing in 1980 with the story “Grimm’s Law” that appeared in Stellar 5. That same year, he published his first novel, The Probability Broach, which launched his North American Confederacy series.  In 1983, he published the Lando Calrissian series, among the earliest Star Wars tie-in novels. […]

Don Sakers (b.1958) died from a heart attack on May 17.  Sakers began publishing short fiction in 1983 and published two novels in the PsiScouts series with Phil Meade as well as the stand alone novel The Curse of the Zwilling. As an editor, he worked on the anthologies Carmen Miranda’s Ghost is Haunting Space […]

Anthologist Marvin Kaye (b.1938) died on May 13.  After working as a journalist, Kaye became a senior editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich before going freelance in 1970. His anthologies included the World Fantasy Award winning The Fair Folk, The Dragon Quintet, Witches and Warlocks, and Forbidden Planets. From 2004-2009 he edited H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror and he edited Weird Tales from 2011 to 2014.  He wrote […]

Jan Stirling (b.1950) died on May 8.  Stirling published her first story, “Were-Wench” in 1995 in the anthology Chicks in Chainmail and went on to publish stories in three additional volumes of the series.  She published a total of five solo short stories and an additional six stories written in collaboration with her husband, S.M. Stirling. […]

Author Norton Juster (b.1929) died on March 8.  Juster was working as an architect when he began work on a book on urban planning aimed at children. The book eventually became The Phantom Tollbooth, which has been adapted for the screen and stage. Juster also wrote The Dot and the Line. Other books included Alberic the Wise and […]

Mary Elizabeth Sheridan (b.1938) died on January 17.  Sheridan served as the administrator for the Clarion Writers Workshop in East Lansing, Michigan for three decades. Sheridan worked as a liaison between the workshop and the university, arranging to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible for the workshop attendees and the visiting instructors. When Clarion […]

Storm Constantine (b.1956) died on January 14 following a long illness. Constantine published her first novel, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, in 1987, kicking off her long-running Wraeththu series, which is comprised of multiple trilogies as well as several short stories. She later published books in the Corinna Trogarden series, the Grigori Trilogy, and […]

SFWA Grand Master James E. Gunn (b.1923) died on December 23, 2020.  Gunn served as SFWA President from 1971-1972. Gunn began publishing science fiction in 1949 with the short story “Communications”, using the byline Edwin James. Over the years, he built up parallel careers as both a science fiction author and an academic. His first novel, […]

Phyllis Eisenstein (b.1946) died on December 7. Eisenstein’s novels included Sorcerer’s Son, In the Red Lord’s Reach, and Shadow of Earth. Eisenstein published two volumes in the Tales of Alaric the Minstrel series and two volumes of the Book of Elementals trilogy. She also published two stand-alone novels.  Many of her early short stories were published in collaboration with […]

Dean Ing (b.1931) died on June 21. Ing published his first two stories in the 1950s. In the 1970s, he published several short stories and his first novel, Soft Targets.  In 1979, his novelette “Devil You Don’t Know” was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo Award. Additional novels, such as Anasazi and Single Combat followed and after the death of […]