Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop | |
---|---|
Born | Houston, Mississippi, U.S. | September 15, 1946
Died | January 14, 2024 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 77)
Occupation | Fiction writer |
Genre | Science fiction |
Notable works | "The Ugly Chickens", "Night of the Cooters" |
Notable awards | Nebula Award (1980) World Fantasy Award (1981) |
Howard Waldrop (September 15, 1946 – January 14, 2024) was an American science fiction author who worked primarily in short fiction. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021.
Early life
[edit]Born in Houston, Mississippi,[1] Waldrop spent most of his life in Texas. He moved to Washington state for several years, but returned to Austin.
As a child, he corresponded with A Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin about their shared love of comic books. He was an avid fly fisherman. He was a member of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop, attended the Rio Hondo Writing Workshop,[2] and taught at the Clarion Workshop.[3]
Career
[edit]Waldrop was a frequent attendee of ArmadilloCon, the local science fiction convention held annually in Austin. He was the Toastmaster at the inaugural ArmadilloCon #1 (1979) and again at ArmadilloCon #29 (2007); he was Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon #5 (1983).[4]
Waldrop was one of three writer Guests of Honor at the 1995 World Fantasy Convention[5] held in Baltimore and at Readercon 15[6] held in Burlington, Massachusetts, in 2003.[7]
Waldrop was Professional Writer Guest of Honor at Loscon 46 in Los Angeles, California, in 2019.[8]
In 2004 he started writing movie reviews with Lawrence Person for Locus Online.[9]
Waldrop died from a stroke in Austin, on January 14, 2024, at the age of 77.[10][11]
Style
[edit]Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternative history, American popular culture, the American South,[12] old movies (and character actors), classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical: Night of the Cooters is a pastiche of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds told from the perspective of a small town Texas sheriff (a homage to Slim Pickens) who faces a Martian cylinder crashing down near his town; "Heirs of the Perisphere" involves robotic Disney characters waking up in the far future; "Fin de Cyclé" describes the Dreyfus affair from the perspective of bicycle enthusiasts.
Waldrop's work is frequently out-of-print, though still available for sale online; several of his books have been reprinted in omnibus editions.
Several of his stories have been nominated for the genre's awards; "The Ugly Chickens" — about the extinction of the dodo — won a Nebula Award for best novelette in 1980, and also a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction in 1981; this is perhaps his best known work. In 2021, he won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.[13]
Film adaptations
[edit]Several of his stories are being adapted to film.[12]
Bibliography
[edit]Novels & novellas
[edit]- The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 (with Jake Saunders, 1974) (Ballantine mass market, 1986, ISBN 0-345-33994-0)
- Them Bones (Ace, 1984, ISBN 0-441-80557-4)
- A Dozen Tough Jobs (novella) (Mark V Ziesing hardcover, 1989, ISBN 0-929480-01-5)
- The Search for Tom Purdue (announced)[1]
- The Moone World (announced)[2]
Short story collections
[edit]- Howard Who? (Doubleday hardcover, 1986) (2006 trade paperback reprint from Small Beer Press, ISBN 1-931520-18-6)
- All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (Ursus Imprints, signed/numbered/slipcased hardcover, 1987), (Ace mass market, 1991, ISBN 0-441-16069-7); mass-market UK edition reprinted under the title Strange Things In Close-Up, 1991
- Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories (Zeising/Ursus Imprints hardcover, 1990) (Ace mass market, 1993, ISBN 0-441-57473-4)
- Going Home Again (Eidolon trade paperback, 1997, ISBN 0-9586864-0-8)
- Dream Factories and Radio Pictures (e-book, 2001 at http://www.electricstory.com Archived January 17, 2020, at the Wayback Machine; printed trade paperback from Wheatland Press, 2003)
- Custer's Last Jump and Other Collaborations (Golden Gryphon hardcover, 2003, ISBN 1-930846-13-4) (includes Waldrop's collaborations with Steven Utley, Bruce Sterling, Leigh Kennedy, George R. R. Martin, and others.)
- Heart of Whitenesse (Subterranean Press, hardcover, 2005, ISBN 1-59606-018-2)
- Things Will Never be the Same: Selected Short Fiction 1980-2005 ("best of" collection from Old Earth Books, 2007, ISBN 1-882968-36-0, trade paperback; ISBN 1-882968-35-2 for 300-copy limited edition hardcover)[14]
- Other Worlds, Better Lives: Selected Long Fiction 1989-2003 (Old Earth Books, 2008, ISBN 1-882968-38-7, trade paperback; ISBN 1-882968-37-9 for 300-copy signed/limited edition hardcover)[14]
- Horse of A Different Color: Selected Stories (2008-2013) Small Beer Press trade paperback, ISBN 978-1-61873-073-2)
- H'ard Starts: The Early Waldrop (Subterranean Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-64524-116-4 for 750-copy signed/limited edition hardcover)
Short stories
[edit]- "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!" lead off story in Wild Cards I: Wild Cards, Bantam, 1986 (multiple volume ongoing series currently in print from Tor Books.)
- "Thin, On the Ground" in Cross Plains Universe, MonkeyBrain Books, 2006.
- "The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls" in Old Mars (anthology), Tor Books, 2013.[15][16] Nominated for a Locus Award.[17]
- "Ike at the Mike" (Omni, June 1982)
Chapbooks
[edit]- The Soul-Catcher (self-published, 1967)
- You Could Go Home Again (Cheap Street signed/numbered/tray cased very limited hardcover edition, 1993)
- Custer's Last Jump (with Steven Utley) (Ticonderoga Publications, 1996)
- Flying Saucer Rock and Roll (Cheap Street signed/numbered tray cased very limited hardcover edition, 2001)
- A Better World's in Birth! (Golden Gryphon, 2003)
- The Horse of a Different Color (You Rode In On)/The King of Where-I-Go (WSFA, 2006); saddle-stitched trade paperback given out to members of the 2005 Capclave, though not printed in time to be distributed there (not available/sold separately after publication)
References
[edit]- ^ Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (July 22, 2021). "Waldrop, Howard". In Clute, John; et al. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.). Gollancz.
- ^ "Waldrop, Howard. (2004, August 1). The 1954 Racing Form, Sci-Fi Style".
- ^ "Clarion Workshop Writers 2003". Archived from the original on August 17, 2003.
- ^ "Con History".
- ^ "History of the World Fantasy Conventions". Archived from the original on December 31, 2008.
- ^ "Readercon15 Program". Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
- ^ "fanac.org ReaderCon 15".
- ^ "2019 Loscon Guests of Honor Announced". September 15, 2018.
- ^ "Lawrence Person's Bibliography".
- ^ "Howard Waldrop: 1946–2024".
- ^ "Howard Waldrop (1946–2024)". Locus. January 15, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ a b https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-george-r-r-martin-223813493.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink
- ^ "Howard Waldrop Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. December 21, 2021.
- ^ a b "Howard Waldrop - Old Earth Books".
- ^ DeNardo, John (February 14, 2013). "TOC: Old Mars Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois". SF Signal. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
- ^ Bedford, Robert H. (October 8, 2013). "Mars as We Thought it Could Be: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois". Tor.com. Macmillan. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
- ^ "2014 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. June 28, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
External links
[edit]- Howard Waldrop at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A Woodsman's Guide to Howard Waldrop
- The Ugly Chickens (online at lexal.net)
- Howard Waldrop stories online
- Howard Waldrop at IMDb
- 1946 births
- 2024 deaths
- 20th-century American novelists
- American male novelists
- American science fiction writers
- American alternate history writers
- Nebula Award winners
- World Fantasy Award–winning writers
- Novelists from Texas
- American male short story writers
- 20th-century American short story writers
- 21st-century American short story writers
- People from Houston, Mississippi
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers