Bruce Boston

Bruce Boston (born 1943)[1] is an American speculative fiction writer and poet who was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.[2] He received a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, 1965, and an M.A., 1967. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 2001, where he worked in a variety of occupations, including computer programmer, college professor (literature and creative writing, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California, 1978–82), technical writer, book designer, gardener, movie projectionist, retail clerk, and furniture mover. As of 2008 he was living in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.[3]

Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record[4] seven times: for Best Long Poem in 1989 and 1999, and for Best Short Poem in 1985, 1988, 1994, 1996, and 2001,[5] and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record six times: 1990, 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2008.[6] He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, a record four Bram Stoker Awards in poetry for his collections Pitchblende, 2003, Shades Fantastic, 2006, The Nightmare Collection, 2008, Dark Matters, 2010, and the first Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999.[7] His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest,[8]" received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.

Boston has also published[9] more than a hundred short stories and the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener's Tale (the latter a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and Prometheus Award Nominee). His work has appeared widely in periodicals and anthologies, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories Magazine, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase. Writing in The Washington Post, Paul Di Filippo described his collection Masque of Dreams as containing "nearly two dozen brilliant stories ranging across all emotional and narrative terrains."[10]

Boston has chaired the Nebula Award Novel Jury (SFWA), the Bram Stoker Award Novel Jury, and the Philip K. Dick Award Jury, and served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He has served as fiction and/or poetry editor for a number of publications, including Occident, The Open Cell, Berkeley Poets Cooperative, City Miner, and Star*Line. As of 2014, he edits speculative poetry for The Pedestal Magazine.[2]

He was the poet guest of honor at the World Horror Convention in 2013.[11][12]

Bibliography

Novels

Novelettes

Fiction and poetry collections

Fiction collections

Poetry collections

Poetry broadsides

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Bruce Boston (accessed Sept. 18 2013)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Diane Severson, Interview with Bruce Boston,Amazing Stories March 15, 2013 (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  3. ↑ Bruce Boston Website
  4. ↑ Locus, Rhysling Award Tallies (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  5. ↑ Science Fiction Poetry Association, Rhysling archive (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  6. ↑ The Locus Index to SF Awards: Asimov's Reader Poll Records and Tallies
  7. ↑ Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999 SFPA Grandmaster (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  8. ↑ http://chizine.com/return_to_the_mutant_rain_forest.htm
  9. ↑ Internet SF Database, Bruce Boston Summary Bibliography (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  10. ↑ Paul di Filippo, review, "Microcosmos: A new Golden Age and a flood of titles from the kind of small publishers that first brought the world sf", Washington Post, Sunday, April 7, 2002; Page BW13 (accessed Sept. 18, 2013).
  11. ↑ Locus Online News, Bruce Boston Joins World Horror Guests of Honor, 10 July 20, 2012 (accessed Sept. 18 2013)
  12. ↑ World Horror Convention 2013 GoH Interview #5: Bruce Boston (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)

External links