Andrew I. Porter

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Andrew Porter with the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award at the 1993 Worldcon

Andrew Porter in 2006

Andrew Ian Porter, (born March 24, 1946) entered science fiction fandom in 1960 and became active in fan groups in New York City. He published many different fanzines (including the newszine S.F.Weekly, from 1966-68, and Algol). He started his semiprozine Science Fiction Chronicle in 1979. He has attended hundreds of science fiction conventions and nearly 40 World Science Fiction Conventions since his first in 1963. He worked on conventions in the US, Canada and overseas, and was on the central committee of the 1967 Worldcon, NYCon 3. With John Bangsund, he was responsible for Australia hosting its first Worldcon. He was Fan Guest of Honor at several conventions, most notably the 1990 Worldcon, ConFiction. A 25-time Hugo Award nominee, he won the fanzine Hugo in 1974 for his fanzine/semiprozine Algol (later renamed Starship), and the semiprozine Hugo in 1993 and 1994 for Science Fiction Chronicle. In 1991, he received a Special Committee Award at the Worldcon, for Distinguished Semiprozine Work; in 1992 he received a Special British Fantasy Award. He sold Science Fiction Chronicle to DNA Publications in May, 2000 and was fired in 2002.

In publishing, he was a proofreader and copy editor, was assistant editor on The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1966-74, associate editor at the paperback publisher Lancer Books in the late 1960s, and was a trade magazine editor and advertising production manager on such titles as Rudder, Quick Frozen Foods (under editor Sam Moskowitz), QFF International, Construction Equipment, and Electro-Procurement. He was editor/designer/publisher of The Book of Ellison, a hardcover/trade paperback published to honor Harlan Ellison’s 1978 stint as Worldcon Pro Guest of Honor. His other publications, under the Algol Press imprint, are Exploring Cordwainer Smith, Experiment Perilous: The Art and Science of Anguish In Science Fiction (with essays by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Alfred Bester and Norman Spinrad), and The Fiction of James Tiptree, Jr. by Gardner Dozois. He has sold articles and photos to Publishers Weekly, Omni, and The New York Times. He is a New York City resident.