Archive for the ‘In Memoriam’ Category

In Memoriam – Janet Asimov

Janet Asimov (b. Janet O. Jeppson, 1926) died on February 25. Along with writing,  Jeppson has had a long and successful career as a psychiatrist, publishing numerous scientific articles under the name Janet O. Jeppson, and serving as a popular science columnist for the L.A. Times.  Her first story was published in The Saint Mystery Magazine […]

Russell Bates: A Remembrance

by John Walters

I have been reading a dynamic new book called The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present, and I thought about my Native American friend Russell Bates and wondered what he might think of the book. I hadn’t been in touch with him since I moved back to the States from Greece, so I ran a search to see if I might find a recent email address or Facebook page where I could re-contact him.That’s when I came across his obituary. It said that he died on April 19, 2018, after a brief illness. He was seventy-six years old.

In Memoriam – Betty Ballantine

Betty Ballantine (b. Elizabeth Jones, 1919) died on February 12. Ballantine introduced paperbacks to the United States and co-founded Bantam Books in 1945 with her husband Ian. Later on, the publishing company launched the Ballantine Adult Fantasy line and then started the imprint, Del Rey for science fiction and fantasy in 1977. In 1953, Ballantine […]

In Memoriam – Carol Emshwiller

Author Carol Emshwiller (b.Carol Fries, April 12, 1921) died on February 2nd, 2019.   Ms. Emshwiller began publishing science fiction in 1954, with the story “Built for Pleasure.”  Emshwiller built a reputation as a short fiction author and Ursula Le Guin said that she had “one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction.” […]

In Memoriam: K.C. Ball

K.C. Ball suffered a fatal heart attack on August 26.  Ball attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2010 and Launch Pad in 2011.  She served as the publisher and editor of 10Flash Quarterly, an on-line flash fiction magazine.  She also won the Speculative Literature Foundation Older Writer Award. In 2012, her short fiction appeared in the collection […]

In Memoriam – Harlan Ellison

Grand Master Harlan Ellison (b.1934) died on June 28, 2018. Ellison began his professional career in 1956 with the publication of the short story “Glowworm” in Infinity Science Fiction. Prior to that time, he was active in science fiction fandom. During the mid 1950s, Ellison  lived in New York and produced a prodigious amount of short fiction […]

In Memoriam – Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois (b. 1947) died on May 27, 2018.  Dozois won fifteen Hugo Awards for his editing and back-to-back Nebula Awards for his short stories “The Peacemaker” and “Morning Child.”  He had a long career as an author and was one of the most influential editors the field has seen, publishing Year’s Best anthologies for more […]

In Memoriam – Mary Rosenblum

Mary Rosenblum (b.1952) was killed on March 11 when the small plane she was piloting crashed near Battle Ground, Washington. Rosenblum’s debut novel, The Drylands, received the Compton Crook Award and was followed up by novels Chimera, The Stone Garden, Water Rites, and Horizons. Beginning in 1999, she also began publishing mysteries under her maiden […]

In Memoriam – Kate Wilhelm

Kate Wilhelm (b.1928) died on March 8.  Wilhelm was one of the founders of SFWA. Two years ago, SFWA named the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award in her honor. Wilhelm began publishing science fiction in 1956 with her short story “The Pint-Sized Genie” and published her first science fiction novel, The Clone, co-written with Theodore L. Thomas, in […]

In Memoriam- Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) died on January 22. Le Guin was named a Damon Knight Grand Master by the SFWA in 2003. Le Guin’s wrote for all ages and her Earthsea cycle, beginning with The Wizard of Earthsea, introduced many readers to fantasy and the wizard Ged. She wrote novels such as The Left […]