Jeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American New York Times Best Selling writer,
editor, teacher, and publisher. He has won the Nebula Award, Rhysling Award,
British Fantasy Award, BSFA Award, the World Fantasy Award three times, and has
been a finalist for the Hugo Award. He is best known for his contributions
to the New Weird and his stories about the city of Ambergris, in books like
City of Saints and Madmen. He is also the author of the 2014 series called The
Southern Reach Trilogy. Biography
= Personal life = He was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania,
but spent much of his childhood in the Fiji Islands, where his parents worked
for the Peace Corps; this stay and the trip back to the United States through
Asia, Africa, and Europe, influenced him.
In 2003, VanderMeer married Ann Kennedy, then editor for the small Buzzcity Press
and magazine the Silver Web. Ann Vandermeer was the editor of Weird Tales
magazine, and a respected anthologist and publisher. The VanderMeers live in
Tallahassee, Florida. = Writing =
Jeff VanderMeer is the author of the best-selling City of Saints and Madmen,
set in his signature creation, the imaginary city of Ambergris, in addition
to several other novels from Bantam, Tor, and Pan Macmillan. His work, both
books and short stories, has been translated into over twenty languages.
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases may
be his most famous anthology, and is considered a cult classic, still in
print along with his Leviathan original fiction series.
VanderMeer is the founding editor and publisher of the Ministry of Whimsy
Press, up until recently on hiatus. It is currently an imprint of Wyrm
Publishing. One of the Ministry's publications, The Troika by Stepan
Chapman, won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1997.
VanderMeer's reviews and essays have appeared in The Washington Post Book
World, Publishers Weekly, and many others. He is a regular columnist for
the Amazon book-culture blog, and has served as a judge for the Eisner Awards,
among others, and has been a guest speaker at such diverse events as the
Brisbane Writers Festival, Finncon in Helsinki, and the American Library
Association annual conference. His multi-media presentations and lectures
on a variety of topics have been given all over the world.
VanderMeer has also worked in other media, such as a movie based on his
novel Shriek that featured an original soundtrack by rock band The Church and a
Play Station Europe animation of his story "A New Face in Hell" by animator
Joel Veitch. VanderMeer also wrote a Predator tie-in novel for Dark Horse
Comics called Predator: South China Seas and the introduction to Ben
Templesmith’s second Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse graphic novel from IDW
Publishing. VanderMeer also worked on a short film based on his story "The
Situation", and several novellas, including “Borne,” a sequel to "The
Situation." VanderMeer has also worked on a number
of anthologies. Most of these have been collaborations with his wife, Ann
VanderMeer, who was a Hugo-award-winning editor of Weird Tales. These anthologies
include The New Weird, a collection of stories from New Weird authors; Last
Drink Bird Head, a charity anthology benefiting literacy; The Weird, a
collection of weird fiction; Time Traveler's Almanac, an anthology of
time-travel fiction; Fast Ships, Black Sails, a pirate fiction anthology; and a
series of steampunk anthologies. VanderMeer's Ambergris novel, a noir
thriller called Finch, was nominated for the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novel.,
For this book, VanderMeer approached rock band Murder By Death about
recording a soundtrack for release with a limited edition of the book. The band
obliged with the October 2009 release of Finch.
The Southern Reach Trilogy In 2014, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
published a new series by Jeff VanderMeer called "The Southern Reach
Trilogy". The first Southern Reach novel, Annihilation was published in
February 2014, and the second novel in the series, Authority, was published on
6 May 2014. The last novel, Acceptance, was released in September 2014.
VanderMeer and the publisher decided to release the three novels in quick
succession, over an 8-month period. The critical response for the series was
generally positive. Slate called the trilogy one of "the most
uncompromising—yet most rewarding—genre series" while authors like Stephen King
praised the series calling it "creepy and fascinating". Both Authority and
Acceptance made the New York Times Best Sellers List for Trade Paper Backs.
= Teaching = In addition to editing and writing,
VanderMeer has also been involved in teaching creative writing. One of the
projects he is involved with is Shared Worlds, an annual two-week program that
aims to teach creative writing to teenagers. VanderMeer has also taught at
the Clarion Workshop and at Trinity Prep School. In addition to his teaching,
VanderMeer has also written guides to creative writing such as Wonderbook,
which won a BSFA Award, a Locus Award, and was nominated for a Hugo and World
Fantasy Award. Bibliography
= Novels = Dradin, In Love
The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, by Duncan Shriek
Veniss Underground Shriek: An Afterword
Predator: South China Seas Finch
Annihilation Authority
Acceptance Borne
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck The Book Murderer
= Nonfiction = Why Should I Cut Your Throat?.
Monkeybrain. 2004. ISBN 1-932265-11-2. Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips
for the 21st Century Writer. Tachyon. 2009. ISBN 1-892391-90-2.
The Steampunk Bible. Abrams Image. 2010. ISBN 0-8109-8958-1.
Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles &
Reviews. Guide Dog. 2011. ISBN 1-935738-03-8.
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. Abrams
Image. 2013. ISBN 9781419704420. = Collections =
The Book of Frog The Book of Lost Places
City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris
City of Saints and Madmen City of Saints and Madmen
The Day Dali Died Secret Life
Why Should I Cut Your Throat? VanderMeer 2005
Secret Lives The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories
The Third Bear Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy:
Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance = Short fiction =
"Mansions of the Moon" in Nemonymous 1 "My Report on the Secret Life of Shane
Hamill" in Eidolon I "Fixing Hanover" in Extraordinary
Engines and reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk ed. Sean Wallace
= Other projects = The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals
= Anthologies edited = Leviathan 1
Leviathan 2 Leviathan 3
Album Zutique The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide
to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases The New Weird
Best American Fantasy Best American Fantasy: v. 2
Last Drink Bird Head, Steampunk
Fast Ships, Black Sails, - Fantasy pirate stories
Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of
Curiosities The Weird
The Time Traveler's Almanac Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist
Speculative Fiction Anthology Awards
Jeff has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award 14 times. He has also won
an NEA-funded Florida Individual Writers’ Fellowship, and, the Le Cafard
Cosmique award in France and the Tähtifantasia Award in Finland, both for
City of Saints. He has also been a finalist for the Hugo Award, Bram Stoker
Award, International Horror Guild Award, Philip K. Dick Award, and many others.
Novels such as Veniss Underground and Shriek: An Afterword have made the
year’s best lists of Amazon.com, The Austin Chronicle, The San Francisco
Chronicle, and Publishers Weekly, among others.
Other Awards include: 2000 – World Fantasy Award for the
novella The Transformation of Martin Lake
2003 – World Fantasy Award for his anthology Leviathan 3
2009 – World Fantasy Award nomination for Finch
2009 – Nebula Award nomination for Best Novel for Finch
2012 – World Fantasy Award for his anthology The Weird
2013 – BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction for Wonderbook
2013 – Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction for Wonderbook
2013 – Hugo Award nomination for Wonderbook
2013 – World Fantasy Award nomination for Wonderbook
2014 - Nebula Award winner for Best Novel for Annihilation
See also 2013 in literature
References External links
Official website Golden Gryphon Press official site -
About Secret Life Jeff VanderMeer at the Internet
Speculative Fiction Database Jeff VanderMeer at the Internet Book
List