Steven Utley
Encyclopedia
Steven Utley is an American
writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction
stories.
non-commissioned officer
and grew up on Air Force bases in the United States, Great Britain
, and Okinawa. During the 1970s, he joined a group of science fiction writers in Austin, Texas
, which included Lisa Tuttle
, Howard Waldrop
, and Bruce Sterling
; the group was later formalized as Turkey City Writer's Workshop
. Utley's first professionally published story, "The Unkindest Cut of All," a parody of Hugo Gernsback
ian scientifiction, appeared in 1972. Since then he has published widely in and out of the science-fiction field, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
calls him "a figure of edgy salience," and Gardner Dozois
, who as editor of Asimov's Science Fiction
published most of Utley's output during the 1990s, has suggested that he "may be the most under-rated science fiction writer alive," calling him a writer "of strength, suppleness, and seemingly endless resource ... able to turn his hand to almost any subject matter, mood, or type of story imaginable, and ... unafraid to tackle any of them."
The Turkey City writers collaborated prolifically among themselves during the 1970s, and Utley and Waldrop produced two oft-reprinted stories, "Custer's Last Jump" (a Nebula Award
finalist following its publication in 1976) and "Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole" (1977), regarded as prototypes of steampunk
science fiction. These appear in Custer's Last Jump! and Other Collaborations (Golden Gryphon Press
, 2003) along with Waldrop stories co-written by Leigh Kennedy
, Bruce Sterling, Al Jackson, Jake Saunders, and George R. R. Martin
. Three collaborations with Lisa Tuttle, including "Flies by Night" (1975), another story frequently reprinted and translated, appear in Utley's 2005 collection, The Beasts of Love, for which Tuttle provided an introduction.
Utley may be best known for his "Silurian
Tales," launched in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1993 and continued in not only that magazine but also The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, and the webzines Sci Fiction
and Revolution Science Fiction. Described by Brian Stableford
in Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia as "[t]he most elaborate reconstruction of a past era in recent speculative fiction," the series employs a variety of literary techniques in recounting the adventures and misadventures of a scientific expedition in the Paleozoic
Era and also address some implications of the "many-worlds" hypothesis in quantum physics; several of the stories have been reprinted in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies and the competing Year's Best SF edited by David G. Hartwell
and Kathryn Cramer. Ticonderoga Publications
, based in Australia
, has announced plans to release the Silurian Tales in two volumes titled The 400-Million-Year Itch (in July 2012) and Invisible Kingdoms (in July 2013).
A separate series of time-travel stories, launched in Galaxy
in 1976 but developed extensively in Asimov's Science Fiction during the 1990s, deals with so-called "chronopaths" and has been collected in book form under the title Where or When (2006).
Since 1997, Utley has made his home in Tennessee
, but refers to himself as "an internationally unknown author."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
stories.
Biography
Utley was born in the family of an Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
and grew up on Air Force bases in the United States, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, and Okinawa. During the 1970s, he joined a group of science fiction writers in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, which included Lisa Tuttle
Lisa Tuttle
Lisa Tuttle is an American-born science fiction, fantasy, and horror author. She has published over a dozen novels, five short story collections, and several non-fiction titles, including a reference book on feminism. She has also edited several anthologies and reviewed books for various...
, Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop is a science fiction author who works primarily in short fiction.Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American South, old movies , classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical...
, and Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
; the group was later formalized as Turkey City Writer's Workshop
Turkey City Writer's Workshop
Turkey City Writer's Workshop is a peer-to-peer, professional science fiction writer's workshop in Texas. Founded in 1973 and still ongoing today, it was consciously modeled after the east coast Milford Writer's Workshop...
. Utley's first professionally published story, "The Unkindest Cut of All," a parody of Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...
ian scientifiction, appeared in 1972. Since then he has published widely in and out of the science-fiction field, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is an English language reference work on science fiction.- Publication history :The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with John Clute and Brian Stableford appeared in 1979, published by Granada. It was retitled The Science Fiction Encyclopedia in the US...
calls him "a figure of edgy salience," and Gardner Dozois
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
, who as editor of Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov'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...
published most of Utley's output during the 1990s, has suggested that he "may be the most under-rated science fiction writer alive," calling him a writer "of strength, suppleness, and seemingly endless resource ... able to turn his hand to almost any subject matter, mood, or type of story imaginable, and ... unafraid to tackle any of them."
The Turkey City writers collaborated prolifically among themselves during the 1970s, and Utley and Waldrop produced two oft-reprinted stories, "Custer's Last Jump" (a Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is 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 previous year...
finalist following its publication in 1976) and "Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole" (1977), regarded as prototypes of steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
science fiction. These appear in Custer's Last Jump! and Other Collaborations (Golden Gryphon Press
Golden Gryphon Press
Golden Gryphon Press is an independent publishing company, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and cross-genre novels. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Turner, former editor at Arkham House, and is currently run by his brother Gary and his wife, Geri Turner.The company has...
, 2003) along with Waldrop stories co-written by Leigh Kennedy
Leigh Kennedy
Leigh Kennedy is an American science fiction writer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1985.Kennedy's story "Her Furry Face" was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story....
, Bruce Sterling, Al Jackson, Jake Saunders, and George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
. Three collaborations with Lisa Tuttle, including "Flies by Night" (1975), another story frequently reprinted and translated, appear in Utley's 2005 collection, The Beasts of Love, for which Tuttle provided an introduction.
Utley may be best known for his "Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
Tales," launched in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1993 and continued in not only that magazine but also The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, and the webzines Sci Fiction
Sci Fiction
Sci Fiction was an online magazine which ran from 2000 to 2005. At one time, it was the leading online science fiction magazine. Published by Syfy and edited by Ellen Datlow, the work won multiple awards before it was discontinued.- History :...
and Revolution Science Fiction. Described by Brian Stableford
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published as by Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford...
in Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia as "[t]he most elaborate reconstruction of a past era in recent speculative fiction," the series employs a variety of literary techniques in recounting the adventures and misadventures of a scientific expedition in the Paleozoic
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...
Era and also address some implications of the "many-worlds" hypothesis in quantum physics; several of the stories have been reprinted in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies and the competing Year's Best SF edited by David G. Hartwell
David G. Hartwell
David Geddes Hartwell is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet , Berkley Putnam , Pocket , and Tor Books David Geddes Hartwell (b. July 10, 1941) is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet (1971–1973), Berkley Putnam...
and Kathryn Cramer. Ticonderoga Publications
Ticonderoga Publications
Ticonderoga Publications is an Australian independent publishing house founded by Russell B. Farr in 1996 and now run by Farr and Liz Grzyb. The publisher specialises in collections of science fiction short stories.-History and current:...
, based in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, has announced plans to release the Silurian Tales in two volumes titled The 400-Million-Year Itch (in July 2012) and Invisible Kingdoms (in July 2013).
A separate series of time-travel stories, launched in Galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
in 1976 but developed extensively in Asimov's Science Fiction during the 1990s, deals with so-called "chronopaths" and has been collected in book form under the title Where or When (2006).
Since 1997, Utley has made his home in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, but refers to himself as "an internationally unknown author."
Collections
- Custer's Last Jump (with Howard Waldrop), Ticonderoga PublicationsTiconderoga PublicationsTiconderoga Publications is an Australian independent publishing house founded by Russell B. Farr in 1996 and now run by Farr and Liz Grzyb. The publisher specialises in collections of science fiction short stories.-History and current:...
, Australia, 1996 - Ghost Seas (stories), Ticonderoga Publications, Australia, 1997
- This Impatient Ape (verse), Anamnesis Press, 1998
- Career Moves of the Gods (verse), Anamnesis Press, 2000
- The Beasts of Love (stories), Wheatland PressWheatland PressWheatland Press is an independent book publisher, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror short story and poetry collections. It was founded in 2002 by Deborah Layne...
, 2005 - Where or When (stories), PS Publishing Ltd., Great Britain, 2006
- (forthcoming) The 400-Million-Year Itch (stories), Ticonderoga PublicationsTiconderoga PublicationsTiconderoga Publications is an Australian independent publishing house founded by Russell B. Farr in 1996 and now run by Farr and Liz Grzyb. The publisher specialises in collections of science fiction short stories.-History and current:...
, Australia, 2012 - (forthcoming) Invisible Kingdoms (stories), Ticonderoga PublicationsTiconderoga PublicationsTiconderoga Publications is an Australian independent publishing house founded by Russell B. Farr in 1996 and now run by Farr and Liz Grzyb. The publisher specialises in collections of science fiction short stories.-History and current:...
, Australia, 2013
Books edited by Steven Utley
- Lone Star Universe (with Geo. W. Proctor), Heidelberg Publishers, 1976
- Passing for Human (with Michael BishopMichael Bishop (author)Michael Lawson Bishop is an award-winning American writer. Over four decades and thirty books, he has created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern science fiction and fantasy literature....
), PS Publishing Ltd., 2009, Great Britain