Ursula Kroeber was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California, where she grew up. Her parents were the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber, author of Ishi. She went to Radcliffe College and did graduate work at Columbia University. She married Charles A. Le Guin, a historian, in Paris in 1953; they have lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958, and have three children and three grandchildren.
Ursula K. Le Guin writes both poetry and prose, and in various modes including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young children's books, books for young adults, screenplays, essays, verbal texts for musicians, and voicetexts for performance or recording. She has published five books of poetry, seventeen novels, over a hundred short stories (collected in eight volumes), two collections of essays, eleven books for children,and two volumes of translation. Few American writers have done work of such high quality in so many forms.
Several of Le Guin’s major titles have remained continuously in print for over thirty years. Her best known fantasy works, the first four Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in America and England, and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field for its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity. Her novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home redefine the scope and style of utopian fiction, while the realistic stories of a small Oregon beach town in Searoad show her permanent sympathy with the ordinary griefs of ordinary people. Among her books for children, the Catwings series has become a particular favorite. Her version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, a translation she worked on for forty years, has received high praise.
Recent or forthcoming publications include a novel from the Ekumen series, The Telling, two books of Earthsea: Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind (all from Harcourt), and a collection of science-fiction stories and novellas, The Birthday of the World, from HarperCollins.
Three of Le Guin’s books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award.
Le Guin has taken the risk of writing seriously and with rigorous artistic control in forms some consider sub-literary. Critical reception of her work has rewarded her courage with considerable generosity. Harold Bloom includes her among his list of classic American writers. Grace Paley, Carolyn Kizer, Gary Snyder, and John Updike have praised her work. Many critical and academic studies of Le Guin’s work have been written, including books by Elisabeth Cummins, James Bittner, B.J. Bucknall, J. De Bolt, B. Selinger, K.R. Wayne, D.R. White, and a bibliography by David S. Bratman.
Le Guin leads an intensely private life, with sporadic forays into
political activism and steady participation in the literary community
of her city, particularly the Library, Oregon Literary Arts, and the
Soapstone Foundation. She limits her public appearances mostly to the
West Coast. She has taught writing workshops from Vermont to Australia,
and now teaches one or two a year in Oregon. The annual workshop,
Flight of the Mind, provided the impetus for a recent book on writing
narrative, Steering the Craft.
Diana Galbadon
dianagabaldon.com
Diana Gabaldon is the New York Times bestselling author of four
previous
novels — Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn —
and one work of nonfiction, The Outlandish Companion. The Fiery Cross
is
the latest book in the series. Her latest novel features Lord John Grey
in his own historical mystery titled Lord John and the Private Matter.
Alan Dean Foster
alandeanfoster.com
Alan Dean Foster's writing career began when August Derleth bought a
long Lovecraftian letter of Foster's in 1968 and much to Foster's
surprise, published it as a short story in Derleth's bi-annual magazine
The Arkham Collector. Foster's work to date includes many genres of
science-fiction, fantasy, horror, non-fiction, and he has produced the
novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as
Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. Though
restricted (for now) to the exploration of one world, Foster's love of
the far-away and exotic has led him to travel extensively. He has
taught screenwriting, literature, and film history at UCLA and Los
Angeles City College as well as having lectured at universities and
conferences around the USA and in Europe. He now resides in Prescott in
a house built of brick salvaged from a turn-of-the-century miners'
brothel, along with assorted dogs, cats, fish, several hundred
houseplants, visiting javelina, porcupines, eagles, red-tailed hawks,
skunks, coyotes, bobcats, and the ensorcelled chair of the nefarious
Dr. John Dee. Foster is presently at work on several new novels and
media projects.
Timothy Zahn was
born in Chicago in 1951 and grew up in the western suburb of Lombard.
He attended Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan,
earning a B.S. degree in physics in 1973, and moved to the University
of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, for graduate work. He earned
a M.S. degree there, also in physics, in 1975, and continued work
toward a doctorate. Also in 1975, he began a new hobby: writing science
fiction. At first a strictly spare-time avocation, over the next three
years he gradually began to give more time to it, until he sold his
first story in December 1978 ("Ernie," Analog, September 1979). Still
working toward an eventual career in physics, he occasionally
contemplated taking a year off after getting his doctorate, a grand
experiment to see just how far his writing could take him.
That year arrived earlier than he’d expected. In July 1979, his thesis
adviser died suddenly of a heart attack---ironically, the same day Zahn
received word that his second story had been bought by Analog. With
three years of work on his thesis project effectively wiped out, he
worked for another semester on a new project, trying to drum up
enthusiasm for it. But by that time writing had become far more
interesting to him than physics; and so, in January 1980, he left the
university and began the grand experiment.
With his wife of five months, Anna, working full-time to support them,
Zahn produced eighteen stories that first year, bringing in just over
$2000. As he’d originally set himself a goal of $1000 for the year, he
decided to declare the experiment a success. From then on it was less a
question of whether he could eventually earn a living writing as it was
when that point would be reached. (It took until 1984, incidentally.)
Since then Zahn has published nearly eighty short stories and
novelettes, twenty-two novels, and four short fiction collections.
Along the way he has won a Hugo Award (for the novella "Cascade Point,"
in 1984) and has been nominated twice more. He is best known for his
five Star Wars books (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last
Command, Specter of the Past, and Vision of the Future).
His most recent book is his sixth Star Wars book, Survivor’s Quest; his
next will be Dragon and Soldier, the second of his six-part young-adult
Dragonback SF series, due out in June.
The Zahn family lives on the Oregon coast.
Emily Devenport/Lee Hogan
Emily Devenport / Lee Hogan Bibliographies
Emily Devenport has been published under three names. As Emily Devenport, her short Stories were published in ASIMOV'S SF MAGAZINE and the FULL SPECTRUM anthology, but mostly in ABORIGINAL SF, whose readers voted her a Boomerang Award. ROC published six Emily Devenport novels: SHADE, LARISSA, SCORPIANNE, EGGHEADS, THE KRONOS CONDITION, and GODHEADS. ROC published one of her novels under the pen name Maggy Thomas: BROKEN TIME, which was nominated for a Phillip K. Dick Award.
Most recently she has been writing under the pen name Lee Hogan. Roc published the first Lee Hogan book, BELARUS, in 2002. A sequel is due out in spring 2003: ENEMIES and she is currently working on the third book in the series.
Her background is quirky and not so illustrious. She worked for many years as a professional housekeeper, then became an officer for the Arizona Department of Corrections, graduating from the COTA Academy at the top of her class. She has since left that job for a tamer position working in the music department of BORDERS, as sales clerk and resident classical music expert. She is slowly (VERY slowly) pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice. Beyond that, She’s an extremely avid gardener and is happily married to writer/artist Ernest Hogan.
Ernest Hogan
Bibliography
Author and artist, Ernest Hogan has done stories, articles, reviews,
cartoons, illustrations, and covers in a number of science fiction
magazines.
Mr. Hogan's 'Obsidian Harvest' (co-written with Rick Cook) was included
in Analog April 2000 and recommended for the Hugo award and also
published
in Gardner Dozois Year's Best Science Fiction anthology. 'The Rise And
Fall Of Paco Cohen And The Mariachis Of Mars' appeared in Analog April
2001. Ben Bova has recommended this work for the Nebula
award.
His novels have been Cortez on Jupiter, High Aztech, and Smoking Mirror
Blues.
Dennis L. McKiernan
http://home.att.net/~dlmck
Dennis L. Mckiernan was born April 4, 1932, in Moberly,
Missouri,where
he lived until age eighteen, when he joined the U.S. Air Force, serving
four years spanning the Korean War. He received a B.S. in Electrical
Engineering
from the University of Missouri in 1958 and an M.S. in the same field
from
Duke University in 1964. Dennis spent thirty-one years as one of
AT&T
Bell Laboratories whiz kids in research and development - in
anti-ballistic
missile defense systems, in software for telephone systems, and in
various
management think-tank activities - before changing careers to be a
full-time
writer.
Currently living in Tuscon, Arizona, Dennis began writing novels in
1977 while recuperating from a close encounter of the crunch kind with
a 1967 red and black Plymouth Fury (Dennis lost: it ran over him:
Plymouth
1, Dennis 0). Among other hobbies, Dennis enjoys SCUBA diving,
dirt-bike
riding, and motorcycle touring - all enthusiasms shared by his wife. An
internationally bestselling author, his critically acclaimed fantasy
novels
include Voyage of the Fox Rider, The Eye of the Hunter, Dragondoom, The
Silver Call Duology, The Iron Tower Trilogy, the story collection Tales
of Mithgar, Eye of the Hunter
and Silver Wolf, Black Falcon Never one to sit idle too long,
Dennis has also written The Vulgmaster (a graphic novel) and several
short
stories and novelettes which have appeared in various anthologies. He
is
presently working on his next opus.
Adam Niswander
http://www.adam-niswander.com
Adam Niswander is a science fiction (SF), fantasy, horror, young adult, and mystery & thriller writer from Phoenix Arizona. He is the author of: the Shaman Cycle novels - The Charm, The Serpent Slayers, and The Hound Hunters - (Published by Integra Press ; Frank Wagner, Publisher,) as well as The Sand Dwellers, (Published by Fedogan and Bremer, Philip Rahman, Publisher) and The Repository, (Published by Meisha Merlin Publishing, Stephen Pagel, Publisher.) Other hats he has worn include those of book dealer (Adam’s Bookstore on ABE.com), former president (14 terms) of The Central Arizona Speculative Fiction Society (CASFS), CASFS Board, frequent guest at science fiction conventions and member of both SFWA and HWA.
Michael A. Stackpole
http://www.stormwolf.com
N.Y. Times Best Selling Science Fiction & Fantasy Author of Star Wars Novels I, Jedi, Dark Tide: Onslaught, Dark Tide: Ruin, the X-Wing novel series, many Dark Horse Star Wars comics, plus The Dark Glory War, Talion: Revenant, Shadowrun: Wolf & Raven, & Once a Hero, Fortress Draconis, Ghost War (Mechwarrior Dark Age #1) & When Dragons Rage.
He started his career writing role playing games for Flying Buffalo
games and in 1997 wrote the Warriors trilogy for the FASA Battletech
novel
line, giving him his break into the world of novel writing.
Since then, he’s written many novels in the BattleTech universe, the
Star
Wars universe (including the popular line of Rogue Squadron novels)
plus
several fantasy novels including the current DragonCrown War fantasy
series.
John Vornholt
www.vornholt.net
After spending 20 years as a freelance writer (writing mostly non-fiction), John Vornholt turned to book publishing in 1989. Drawing upon the good will generated by an earlier non-fiction book he had written for Simon & Schuster, John secured a contract to write Masks, number seven in the Star Trek: The Next Generation book series.
Masks was the first of the numbered Next Generation books to make the New York Times bestseller list and was reprinted three times in the first month. Although John has only been writing books seriously since 1989, he has written and sold more than 50 books, for both adults and children. He's currently writing a contemporary suspense novel, and the third of a two-book Star Trek: The Next Generation series titled The Genesis Wave. (No, that's not a typo. It is indeed book three of what began as a duology. He has also written a number of young reader novels including ones based on Dinotopia, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Sabrina the Teenage Witch & the recent release of The Troll King.
Theatrical rights for his fantasy novel, The Fabulist, have been sold to two young composers in New York, and they're in the process of adapting it as a Broadway musical.
It would be difficult to find a kind of writing John has not done professionally. He started submitting science fiction stories to magazines when he was about thirteen years old. At the age of twenty, he began to write and sell travel articles (the first sale was to Diversion), and he's made hundreds of sales to markets as diverse as The Hollywood Reporter and DEC Professional.
Early in his career, John flirted with playwriting, which resulted in six published plays and several productions in the Los Angeles area. That proved satisfying, but not very lucrative, and, with a partner, he turned to screenwriting in the 1980s. Hollywood was lucrative, but not very satisfying, and John has enjoyed writing books ever since.
He currently lives with his wife and two children in Tucson,
Arizona.
Michelle M. Welch
Her first novel, Confidence Game, was published in October 2003. The project grew out of almost fifteen years of work, and it is the fifth novel manuscript she wrote. The Bright and the Dark is forthcoming from Bantam Spectra in August 2004. Prior to writing novels, she wrote short stories in a magical-realism style. She also has a background in music and has played various instruments with several musical groups.