Joan D. Vinge (born 2 April 1948 in
BaltimoreBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
,
MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
as Joan Carol Dennison) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
author. She is known for such works as her
Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
-winning
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Snow QueenThe Snow Queen is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Joan D. Vinge, published in 1980. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980....
and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her
Heaven's Chronicles books.
Biography
Vinge studied art in college, but eventually changed to a major in
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
, and received a B.A. degree from
San Diego State UniversityFor a railway station that serves the campus, see SDSU Transit Center.San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...
in 1971.
Vinge has been married twice: first to fellow SF author
Vernor VingeVernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author...
, and then to SF editor
James FrenkelJames Frenkel is a science fiction book editor for Tor Books. He has edited numerous award-winning authors such as Vernor Vinge, Joan D. Vinge, and Frederik Pohl , Andre Norton, Loren D...
. Vinge and Frenkel have two children, and live in
Madison, WisconsinMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
. She has taught at the
Clarion WorkshopClarion is a six-week workshop for new and aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. It was founded by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania. Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm were among the first teachers at the workshop...
several times, both East and West. Besides writing, Vinge also makes and sells dolls.
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
in part dedicated his 1982 novel
Friday to Joan.
On March 2, 2002, Vinge was severely injured in a car accident that left her with "minor but debilitating" brain damage that, along with her
fibromyalgiaFibromyalgia is also referred to as FM or FMS. Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain and also allodynia, a heightened and painful response to pressure...
, left her unable to write. She recovered to the point of being able to resume writing around the beginning of 2007.
http://www.sff.net/people/jdvinge/letter_20070305.htm
Works
Vinge's first published story, "Tin Soldier", a novelette, appeared in
Orbit 14 in 1974. Stories have also appeared in
Analog,
Millennial WomenMillennial Women is a 1978 science fiction anthology, edited by Virginia Kidd, in which all the stories are written by women and have a female character as the primary protagonist...
,
Asimov's Science FictionAsimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov...
,
Omni Magazine, and several "Best of the Year" anthologies.
Several of her stories have won major awards: Her
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Snow QueenThe Snow Queen is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Joan D. Vinge, published in 1980. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980....
won the 1981
Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
for Best science fiction Novel. "Eyes of Amber" won the 1977 Hugo Award for Best
NoveletteA novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms, like a novella, is usually based upon word count...
. She has also been nominated for several other Hugo and
Nebula AwardThe Nebula Award is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years...
s, as well as for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her novel
Psion was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the
American Library AssociationThe American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 65,000 members....
.
In March 2007, a new edition of her novel
Psion was released, which includes a sequel novella, "Psiren", together in one volume.
At the time of her accident in 2002, Vinge had been working on a new, independent novel called
Ladysmith, set in
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
Europe; she resumed writing
Ladysmith once she was able to begin writing again in 2007.
The Snow Queen Cycle
- The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Joan D. Vinge, published in 1980. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980....
(1980)
- World's End (1984)
- The Summer Queen (1991)
- Tangled Up In Blue (2000)
Collections
- Fireship / Mother and Child (1978) - single-volume collection of two novellas.
- Eyes of Amber (1979) - 6 short stories
- Phoenix in the Ashes (1985) - 6 short stories
- Alien Blood (1988) - single-volume collection of Psion and its sequel Catspaw
- The Heaven Chronicles (1991) - single-volume collection of The Outcasts of Heaven's Belt and its sequel Legacy
Media novelizations
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – The Storybook Based on the Movie (1983)
- The Dune Storybook (1984)
- Return to Oz (1985)
- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
- Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
- Ladyhawke (1987)
- Lost in Space (1998)
External links