John Kessel
John Kessel | |
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![]() John Kessel | |
Born | Buffalo, New York, United States | September 24, 1950
Occupation | Writer, editor, teacher |
Nationality | American |
Period | 1978–present |
Genre | Science fiction; Fantasy literature; Comic science fiction; Metafiction; Satire |
Subject | Time travel; the Future; Dinosaurs |
Literary movement | Savage Humanism[1] |
Notable works | Another Orphan, Good News from Outer Space, "Buffalo", "Pride and Prometheus", Corrupting Dr. Nice |
Spouse | Therese Anne Fowler |
Website | |
johnjosephkessel |
John (Joseph Vincent) Kessel (born September 24, 1950 in Buffalo, New York) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer, and the author of four solo novels, Good News From Outer Space (1989), Corrupting Dr. Nice (1997), The Moon and the Other (2017), and Pride and Prometheus (2008), and one novel, Freedom Beach (1985) in collaboration with his friend James Patrick Kelly. Kessel is married to author Therese Anne Fowler.
Education
Kessel obtained a B.A. in Physics and English from the University of Rochester in 1972, followed by a M.A. in English from University of Kansas in 1974, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1981, where he studied under science fiction writer and scholar James Gunn. Since 1982 Kessel has taught classes in American literature, science fiction, fantasy, and fiction writing at North Carolina State University, and helped organize the MFA Creative Writing program at NCSU, serving as its first director.
Publications
Kessel won a Nebula Award in 1982 for his novella "Another Orphan", in which the protagonist finds himself living inside the novel Moby-Dick, and a second for his 2008 novelette "Pride and Prometheus", a story melding the tales of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This novelette also won a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award. The intervening 26 years was the longest gap between competitive awards in Nebula history. His short story "Buffalo" won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and the Locus poll in 1992.
His novella "Stories for Men" shared the 2002 James Tiptree, Jr. Award for science fiction dealing with gender issues with M. John Harrison's novel Light. He has been nominated three times for a World Fantasy Award: 1993 for the Meeting in Infinity collection, 1999 for the short fiction "Every Angel is Terrifying", and 2009 for the short story "Pride and Prometheus".[3]
Kessel is also a widely published science fiction and fantasy critic. His works of criticism include the 2004 essay on Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality". With Mark L. Van Name, Kessel created the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop. Kessel has also edited, with Kelly, three collections of contemporary sf short stories, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, and The Secret History of Science Fiction.
In 1994 his play Faustfeathers received the Paul Green Playwrights' Prize. In 2007 his story "A Clean Escape" (previously adapted by Kessel as a one-act play in 1986) was adapted by Sam Egan for ABC's science fiction anthology series Masters of Science Fiction.
Bibliography
Novels
- 1985 Freedom Beach (with James Patrick Kelly)
- 1989 Good News From Outer Space (Nebula Award Nominee)
- 1997 Corrupting Dr. Nice
- 2017 The Moon and the Other
- 2018 Pride and Prometheus
Novellas
- 1989 Another Orphan
Plays
- 1986 A Clean Escape
- 1994 Faustfeathers (Paul Green Playwrights' Prize Winner)
Short story collections
- 1992 Meeting in Infinity (World Fantasy Award Nominee)
- 1997 The Pure Product
- 2008 The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
Anthologies
- 1996 Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology (with Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner)
- 2006 Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology (with James Patrick Kelly) Features stories by Aimee Bender, Michael Chabon, Ted Chiang, Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Theodora Goss, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, M. Rickert, Benjamin Rosenbaum, George Saunders, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, and Howard Waldrop
- 2007 Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2009 The Secret History of Science Fiction (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2011 Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2012 Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 (coedited with James Patrick Kelly (Pyr)
- 2012 Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology (coedited with James Patrick Kelly (Tachyon Publications)
Other Notable Stories
- 1982 "Another Orphan" (September, Fantasy and Science Fiction) - Nebula Award Winner
- 1988 "Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner" (June, Asimov's SF) - Nebula Award Nominee
- 1991 "Buffalo" (January, Fantasy and Science Fiction) - Sturgeon Award Winner, Locus Award Winner, Hugo Award Nominee, Nebula Award Nominee[4]
- 1993 "The Franchise" (August, Asimov's SF) - Nebula Award nominee, Hugo Award nominee, novelette
- 1996 "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue" (from Intersections) - Nebula Award nominee, novelette
- 1998 "Every Angel is Terrifying" (October–November, Fantasy and Science Fiction) - World Fantasy Award nominee
- 1999 "Ninety Percent of Everything" with Jonathan Lethem and James Patrick Kelly (September, Fantasy and Science Fiction) - Nebula Award nominee, novella
- 2002 "Stories for Men" (October–November, Asimov's SF) - James Tiptree, Jr. Award Winner, Nebula Award Nominee
- 2008 "Pride and Prometheus" (January Fantasy and Science Fiction) - Nebula Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, novelette; World Fantasy Award nominee, short story
As Editor
- 1996 Intersections (with Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner), including stories by Karen Joy Fowler, Carol Emshwiller, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem, Gregory Frost, Maureen F. McHugh, Bruce Sterling, and Michaela Roessner.
- 1998 Memory's Tailor (by Laurence Rudner. Kessel was the literary executor after Rudner's death in 1995.)
- 2006 Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology (with James Patrick Kelly) Features stories by Aimee Bender, Michael Chabon, Ted Chiang, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Theodora Goss, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, M. Rickert, Benjamin Rosenbaum, George Saunders, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, and Howard Waldrop
- 2007 Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2009 The Secret History of Science Fiction (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2011 Kafkaesque (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
- 2012 Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology (coedited with James Patrick Kelly) (Tachyon Publications)
References
- ^ Sawyer, Robert J. (April 29, 2008). "The Savage Humanists". Robert J. Sawyer. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
Meet the Savage Humanists: the hottest science-fiction writers working today. They use SF's unique powers to comment on the human condition in mordantly funny, satiric stories... In these pages, you'll find the top names in the SF field: including...John Kessel...
- ^ Kessel, John. "About the Author". John Kessel. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
- ^ World Fantasy Convention (2010). "Award Winners and Nominees". Archived from the original on December 1, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Reprinted in The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, ed. Gordon Van Gelder. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications (ISBN 978-1-892391-91-9), 2009.
External links
- John Kessel's home page
- John Kessel at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- An Interview with John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly conducted by John Joseph Adams
- An interview with John Kessel conducted by Fiona Kelleghan writing as Ellen Feehan
- Free download of The Baum Plan for Financial Independence from the publisher
- John Kessel at IMDb
- Talk: "The Future as Mirror: How SF Uses the Tomorrow to Understand Today" - Fractal'11 conference
- A July 2017 podcast with John Kessel conducted by David Barr Kirtley
- A July 2017 podcast with John Kessel conducted by Scott Edelman
- 20th-century American novelists
- American male novelists
- American science fiction writers
- 1950 births
- Living people
- Nebula Award winners
- Writers from Buffalo, New York
- Novelists from North Carolina
- North Carolina State University faculty
- American male short story writers
- 20th-century American poets
- 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
- American male poets
- American male dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century American short story writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- Novelists from New York (state)