Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois
Dozois at Clarion West Writers Workshop, Seattle, 1998
Born	Gardner Raymond Dozois July 23, 1947 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 27, 2018(2018-05-27) (aged 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Editor, writer
Period	1970–2018
Genre	Science fiction magazines, anthologies, short fiction
Notable works	Asimov's Science Fiction
Spouse	Susan Casper (m. c. 1970 – 2017, her death)

Gardner Raymond Dozois ( /doʊˈzwɑː/ doh-ZWAH; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction (1986–2004), garnering multiple Hugo and Locus Awards for those works almost every year. He also won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story twice. He was inducted to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011.

Biography

Dozois was born July 23, 1947, in Salem, Massachusetts. He graduated from Salem High School with the Class of 1965. From 1966 to 1969 he served in the Army as a journalist, after which he moved to New York City to work as an editor in the science fiction field. One of his stories had been published by Frederik Pohl in the September 1966 issue of If but his next four appeared in 1970, three in Damon Knight's anthology series Orbit.

Dozois said that he turned to reading fiction partially as an escape from the provincialism of his home town.

He was badly injured in a taxi accident after returning from a Philadelphia Phillies game in 2004 (causing him to miss Worldcon for the first time in many years) but made a full recovery. On July 6, 2007, Dozois had surgery for a planned quintuple bypass operation. A week later, he experienced complications which prompted additional surgery to implant a defibrillator.

Dozois died on May 27, 2018, of a systemic infection at a hospital in Philadelphia at the age of 70.

Fiction

As a writer, Dozois mainly worked in shorter forms. He won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story twice: once for "The Peacemaker" in 1983, and again for "Morning Child" in 1984. His short fiction has been collected in The Visible Man (1977), Geodesic Dreams (a best-of collection), Slow Dancing through Time (1990, collaborations), Strange Days (2001, another best-of collection), Morning Child and Other Stories (2004) and When the Great Days Come (2011). As a novelist, Dozois's oeuvre is significantly smaller. He was the author of one solo novel, Strangers (1978), as well as a collaboration with George Alec Effinger, Nightmare Blue (1977), and a collaboration with George R. R. Martin and Daniel Abraham for Hunter's Run (2008). After becoming editor of Asimov's, Dozois's fiction output dwindled. His 2006 novelette "Counterfactual" won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Dozois also wrote short fiction reviews for Locus.

Michael Swanwick, one of his co-authors, completed a long interview with Dozois covering every published piece of his fiction. Being Gardner Dozois: An Interview by Michael Swanwick was published by Old Earth Books in 2001. It won the Locus Award for Non-Fiction and was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work.

Editorial work

Dozois was known primarily as an editor, winning the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor 15 times in 17 years from 1988 to his retirement from Asimov's in 2004. George R. R. Martin described him as the most important and influential editor in science fiction since John W. Campbell. In addition to his work with Asimov's (of which he was the first associate editor in 1976), he also worked in the 1970s with magazines such as Galaxy Science Fiction, If, Worlds of Fantasy, and Worlds of Tomorrow.

Dozois was also a prolific short fiction anthologist. After resigning from his Asimov's position, he remained the editor of the anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction, published annually since 1984. In three decades Locus readers have voted it the year's best anthology almost 20 times and the runner-up almost 10 times. And, with Jack Dann, he edited a long series of themed anthologies, each with a self-explanatory title such as Cats, Dinosaurs, Seaserpents, or Hackers.

Stories selected by Gardner Dozois for the annual best-of-year volumes have won, as of December 2015, 44 Hugos, 41 Nebulas, 32 Locus, 10 World Fantasy and 18 Sturgeon Awards. That also includes the Dutton series (Dozois volumes only).

Dozois consistently expressed a particular interest in adventure SF and space opera, which he collectively referred to as "center-core SF".

Bibliography

Fiction

Novels

• Nightmare Blue (with George Alec Effinger) (1975, ISBN 978-0-425-02819-3)
• Strangers (1978, ISBN 978-0-399-12095-4)
• Hunter's Run (2008, ISBN 978-0-06-137329-9) (with George R. R. Martin and Daniel Abraham)
• City Under the Stars (2020, ISBN 978-1250756589) (with Michael Swanwick)

Collections

• The Visible Man (1977, ISBN 978-0-425-03595-5)
• Slow Dancing Through Time (1990, ISBN 978-0942681031)
• Geodesic Dreams (1992, ISBN 978-0-312-08197-3)
• Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (2001, ISBN 978-1-886778-26-9)
• Morning Child and Other Stories (2004, ISBN 978-0-7434-9318-5)
• When the Great Days Come (2011, ISBN 978-1-60701-278-8)

Short stories

• "A Special Kind of Morning" (1971)
• "Chains of the Sea" (1971)
• "Machines of Loving Grace" (1972)
• "A Traveler in an Antique Land" (1983)
• The Peacemaker" (1983) (Nebula Award winner)
• "Morning Child" (1984) (Nebula Award winner)
• "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" (1999)
• "The Hanging Curve" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 2002)
• "When the Great Days Came" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec 2005)
• "Shadow Twin" (2005) (with George R. R. Martin and Daniel Abraham)
• "Counterfactual" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 2006)
• "Neanderthals" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2018)

Anthologies

Edited by Gardner Dozois

• A Day in the Life (1972, ISBN 978-0-06-011076-5)
• Another World: Adventures in Otherness (1977, ISBN 978-0-695-40695-0)
• Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1992, ISBN 978-0-312-07238-4)
• Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction (1994, ISBN 978-0-312-10504-4)
• Mammoth Book of Contemporary SF Masters (1994, ISBN 978-1-85487-297-5)
• Killing Me Softly (1995, ASIN B000OEN80G)
• Dying for It (1997, ASIN B000H40WZC)
• Modern Classics of Fantasy (1997, ISBN 978-0-312-16931-2)
• The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (1998, ISBN 978-0-312-19275-4)
• The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (1999, ISBN 978-0-312-19890-9)
• Explorers: SF Adventures to Far Horizons (2000, ISBN 978-0-312-25462-9)
• The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures to the Far Future (2000, ISBN 978-0-312-26326-3)
• Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming (2001, ISBN 978-0-312-27570-9)
• Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future (2002, ISBN 978-0-312-27569-3)
• Galileo's Children: Tales of Science vs. Superstition (2005, ISBN 978-1-59102-315-9)
• One Million A.D. (2005, ISBN 0-7394-6273-3)
• Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 (2006, ISBN 978-0-451-46064-6)
• Galactic Empires (2007)
• The Mammoth Book of the Best Short SF Novels (2009)
• The Book of Swords (2017)
• The Book of Magic (2018)

co-edited by Dozois and Susan Casper

• Ripper (1988, ISBN 978-0-8125-1700-2) (co-edited with Susan Casper)

co-edited by Dozois and Mike Resnick

• Future Earths: Under African Skies (1993, ISBN 978-0-88677-544-5) (co-edited with Mike Resnick)
• Future Earths: Under South American Skies (1993, ISBN 978-0-88677-581-0) (co-edited with Mike Resnick)

co-edited by Dozois and Stanley Schmidt

• Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (1998, ISBN 978-0-345-42194-4) (co-edited with Stanley Schmidt)

co-edited by Dozois and Jonathan Strahan

• The New Space Opera (2007, ISBN 978-0-06-084675-6) (co-edited with Jonathan Strahan)
• The New Space Opera 2 (2009, ISBN 978-0-06-156235-8) (co-edited with Jonathan Strahan)

co-edited by Dozois and Greg Bear

• Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds (2014) (co-edited with Greg Bear)

Cross-genre anthologies co-edited by Dozois and Martin

• Songs of the Dying Earth, a tribute anthology to Jack Vance's seminal Dying Earth series, published by Subterranean Press (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2009)
• Warriors, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories about war and warriors (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2010); Locus Award
• Songs of Love and Death, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories of romance in fantasy and science fiction settings (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2010)
• Down These Strange Streets, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories of private-eye detectives in fantasy and science fiction settings (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (November 2011)
• Old Mars, an anthology featuring new stories about Mars in retro-SF vein (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2013); Locus Award
• Dangerous Women, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories about women warriors (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2013)
• Rogues, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories about assorted rogues (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2014)
• Old Venus, an anthology featuring new stories about Venus in retro-SF vein (co-edited with George R. R. Martin) (2015)

Themed anthology series co-edited by Dozois and Jack Dann

Main article: Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois Ace anthology series

Formerly known as "Magic Tales Anthology Series" until 1995; most released under the Ace imprint.

• Future Power (1976, ASIN B000H75MWC) (co-edited with Jack Dann)
• Aliens! (April 1980, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-83155-0)
• Unicorns! (May 1982, ISBN 978-0-441-85441-7)
• Magicats! (June 1984, ISBN 978-0-441-51532-5)
• Bestiary! (October 1985, ISBN 978-0-441-05508-1)
• Mermaids! (January 1986, ISBN 978-0-441-52567-6)
• Sorcerers! (October 1986, ISBN 978-0-441-77532-3)
• Demons! (July 1987, ISBN 978-0-441-14264-4)
• Dogtales! (September 1988, ISBN 978-0-441-15760-0)
• Seaserpents! (December 1989, ISBN 978-0-441-75682-7)
• Dinosaurs! (June 1990, ISBN 978-0-441-14883-7)
• Little People! (March 1991, ISBN 978-0-441-50391-9)
• Magicats II (December 1991, ISBN 978-0-441-51533-2)
• Unicorns II (November 1992, ISBN 978-0-441-84564-4)
• Dragons! (August 1993, ISBN 978-0-441-16631-2)
• Invaders! (December 1993, ISBN 978-0-441-01519-1)
• Horses! (May 1994, ISBN 978-0-441-00057-9)
• Angels! (June 1995, ISBN 978-0-441-00220-7)
• Dinosaurs II (December 1995, ISBN 978-0-441-00285-6)
• Hackers (October 1996, ISBN 978-0-441-00375-4)
• Timegates (March 1997, ISBN 978-0-441-00428-7)
• Clones (April 1998, ISBN 978-0-441-00522-2)
• Immortals (July 1998, ISBN 978-0-441-00539-0)
• Nanotech (December 1998, ISBN 978-0-441-00585-7)
• Future War (August 1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00639-7)
• Armageddons (November 1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00675-5)
• Aliens Among Us (June 2000, ISBN 978-0-441-00704-2)
• Genometry (January 2001, ISBN 978-0-441-00797-4)
• Space Soldiers (April 2001, ISBN 978-0-441-00824-7)
• Future Sports (June 2002, ISBN 978-0-441-00961-9)
• Beyond Flesh (December 2002, ISBN 978-0-441-00999-2)
• Future Crimes (December 2003, ISBN 978-0-441-01118-6)
• A.I.s (December 2004, ISBN 978-0-441-01216-9)
• Robots (August 2005, ISBN 978-0-441-01321-0)
• Beyond Singularity (December 2005, ISBN 978-0-441-01363-0)
• Escape from Earth (August 2006, Science Fiction Book Club, ISBN 978-1-58288-225-3)
• Futures Past (November 2006, ISBN 978-0-441-01454-5)
• Dangerous Games (April 2007, ISBN 978-0-441-01490-3)
• Wizards (May 2007, ISBN 978-1-101-20874-8)
• The Dragon Book (November 2009, ISBN 978-1-101-15126-6)

"Isaac Asimov's" anthology series

• Transcendental Tales from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (1989, ISBN 978-0-89865-762-3)
• Time Travelers from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (1989, ISBN 978-0-441-80935-6)
• Isaac Asimov's Robots (1991, ISBN 978-0-441-37376-5) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Aliens (1991, ISBN 978-0-441-01672-3)
• Isaac Asimov's Mars (1991, ISBN 978-0-441-37375-8)
• Isaac Asimov's Earth (1992, ISBN 978-0-441-37377-2) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's War (1993, ISBN 978-0-441-37393-2)
• Isaac Asimov's SF Lite (1993, ISBN 978-0-441-37389-5)
• Isaac Asimov's Cyberdreams (1994, ISBN 978-0-441-00073-9)
• Isaac Asimov's Skin Deep (1995, ISBN 978-0-441-00190-3) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Ghosts (1995, ISBN 978-0-441-00254-2) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Vampires (1996, ISBN 978-0-441-00387-7) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Moons (1997, ISBN 978-0-441-00453-9) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Christmas (1997, ISBN 978-0-441-00491-1) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Detectives (1998, ISBN 978-0-441-00545-1) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Camelot (1998, ISBN 978-0-441-00527-7) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Solar System (1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00698-4) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Werewolves (1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00661-8) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Valentines (1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00602-1) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Halloween (1999, ISBN 978-0-441-00854-4) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Utopias (2000, ISBN 978-0-441-00784-4) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Mother's Day (2000, ISBN 978-0-441-00721-9) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)
• Isaac Asimov's Father's Day (2001, ISBN 978-0-441-00874-2) (co-edited with Sheila Williams)

The Year's Best Science Fiction series

Main article: The Year's Best Science Fiction

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988) The Best New Science Fiction (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection (1989) Best New SF #02 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection (1990) Best New SF #03 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection (1991) Best New SF #04 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992) Best New SF #05 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection (1993) Best New SF #06 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eleventh Annual Collection (1994) Best New SF #07 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection (1995) Best New Science Fiction #08 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996) Best New SF #09 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997) Best New Science Fiction #10 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection (1998) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #11 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #12 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2000) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #13 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #14 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #15 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection (2003) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #16 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #17 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #18 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #19 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #20 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (2008) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #21 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #22 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #23 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #24 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection (2012) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #25 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #26 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #27 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #28 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016) The Mammoth Book Of Best New Science Fiction #29 (UK)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018)
• Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction (2005) (Anthology from previous Year's Best Science Fiction editions)
• Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Year's Best Short Science Fiction Novels (2007) (Anthology from previous Year's Best Science Fiction editions)

Dozois also edited volumes six through ten of the Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year series after Lester del Rey edited the first five volumes. That series began in 1972 and ended in 1981.

Nonfiction

• The Fiction of James Tiptree, Jr. (1977, ISBN 978-0-916186-04-3)
• Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy (1993, ISBN 978-0-312-08926-9) (co-edited with Stanley Schmidt and Sheila Williams)

Critical studies and reviews of Dozois' work

Old Venus

• Sakers, Don (May 2015). "The Reference Library". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (5): 104–107.

External links

Interviews

• The SF Site: A Conversation with Gardner Dozois
• Locus Online: Gardner Dozois Interview (excerpt)

Other

• Gardner Dozois at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "Gardner Dozois biography". Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
• Profile of Gardner Dozois Archived October 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Philcon 97 Program Book, copy at Michael Swanwick Online
• Gardner Dozois at Asimovs.com
• Gardner Dozois's Recommended Reading List at the Wayback Machine (archived January 25, 2008), SFWA Recommended Reading Lists, no date – "devised to direct younger readers to older stuff"
• Gardner Dozois's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online
• Gardner Dozois at Library of Congress Authorities – with 96 catalog records