Charles de Lint

Last updated

Charles de Lint
Born (1951-12-22) December 22, 1951 (age 72)
Bussum, Netherlands
Pen name Samuel M. Key
OccupationAuthor
Nationality Canadian
Period1983–present
Genre Fantasy, horror, mythic fiction, magical realism, urban fantasy
SpouseMaryAnn Harris (m. 1980)
Website
charlesdelint.com

Charles de Lint [1] [2] [3] (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer.

Contents

Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, contemporary magical realism, and mythic fiction. [4] Along with authors like Terri Windling, Emma Bull, and John Crowley, de Lint during the 1980s pioneered and popularized the subgenre of urban fantasy. He writes novels, novellas, short stories, poetry]], and lyrics. His most famous works include: [5] the Newford series of books (Dreams Underfoot, Widdershins, The Blue Girl, The Onion Girl, Moonlight and Vines, Someplace to be Flying, etc.), as well as Moonheart, The Mystery of Grace, The Painted Boy and A Circle of Cats (children's book illustrated by Charles Vess). His distinctive style of fantasy uses American folklore and European folklore; de Lint was influenced by many authors of mythology, folklore, and science fiction, including [1] J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord Dunsany, William Morris, Mervyn Peake, James Branch Cabell, and E. R. Eddison. Some of his mythic fiction poetry can be found online on the Endicott Studio website. [6]

As an essayist/critic/folklorist he writes book reviews for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , has judged several literary awards, and has been a writer-in-residence for two public libraries.

Personal life

Charles de Lint was born in 1951 in Bussum, in North Holland in the Netherlands. His family emigrated to Canada when he was four months old. He grew up in Canada, as well as overseas, but has lived in Ottawa since he was age eleven.

In 1974 he met MaryAnn Harris, [7] [8] and they married in 1980. They now live in Ottawa. Harris is first editor of de Lint's fiction and also his business manager. [9]

MaryAnn Harris has been hospitalized since September 6, 2021 for a rare and debilitating tick-borne virus. [10]

Career

During his late twenties to early thirties, de Lint worked in a record store and played with a Celtic musical band during weekends. [11]

Writing

Charles de Lint started writing in 1983 and has been a full-time writer ever since, publishing about forty books between 1984 and 1997, and 71 books (excluding foreign editions and reprints), in total, thus gaining a reputation as a master of fantasy.

He published three horror novels using the pseudonym Samuel M. Key [11] which have subsequently been reprinted by Orb Books as by Charles de Lint. He has also published a children's book, A Circle of Cats, illustrated by artist Charles Vess. [12]

Style and settings

His main genre, that of contemporary fantasy, which combines the real world with the "otherworld", allows the co-existence of the natural and the supernatural. This has been termed a metaphor for the lack of indigenous folklore in most of Canada living side-by-side with the living oral traditions of the Native Americans. [13] De Lint, however, draws upon not only North American Aboriginal culture, but also the folklore of other cultures. For example, his novel, Moonheart, uses elements of both Native American and Welsh folklore. [13]

Many of his early books are set in Ottawa, while others (1990–2009) have been set mainly in his fictional North American city of Newford, [11] inspired by de Lint's favourite aspects of various North American cities. A regular set of characters are used in many different books. More recently, de Lint published an adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (Tor 2009), set in his fictional Southwestern US town, Santa de Vado Viejo, as was his most recent young adult novel, The Painted Boy (Viking 2010).

Recognition

De Lint has received many awards, including the 2000 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection for Moonlight and Vines, the Ontario Library Association's White Pine Award, as well as the Great Lakes Great Books Award for his young adult novel The Blue Girl (Viking, 2004). In 1988 he won the Canadian SF/Fantasy Award, the Casper (now known as the Aurora) for his novel Jack, the Giant-killer (Ace 1987). His novel Widdershins (Tor, 2006) won first place, Amazon.com Editors' Picks: Top 10 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2006. [14] His 1984 urban fantasy novel, Moonheart, was a best-selling trade paperback for Tor's Orb line. It has been described as a thriller, detective mystery, and otherworld mythic fantasy. [13]

Other literary work

In addition to being the author of numerous novels and short stories, de Lint is also a poet, folklorist, and critic. His poetry can be found online in the Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts. He has taught creative writing workshops in Canada and the United States, and was writer‑in‑residence for two public libraries in Ottawa. He has also written original songs; his main instruments are flute, fiddle, whistles, vocals and guitar. In 2011, de Lint released his first CD, Old Blue Truck [14] De Lint has also been a judge for the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award and the Bram Stoker Award.

Music and art

De Lint plays folk, Irish and Celtic music with his wife MaryAnn; at one time playing at a local pub, and most recently doing concerts at FaerieWorlds and FaerieCon West in Seattle. He plays multiple instruments and sings and writes his own songs. In 2011 de Lint released his first album, Old Blue Truck, [15] which was released alongside his wife MaryAnn Harris's album, Crow Girls [16] in which he also contributes.

Bibliography

Novels

Young adult novels

Some additional young adult novels are listed under their series name below.

Novellas

Chapbooks

Short stories published in book form

Collections

Newford series

Newford is a fictional North American city where Charles de Lint has set many of his novels and short stories. Human beings share the city with European and Native American mythological legends, finding common ground as they live out their daily lives or find themselves swept up in adventures. [21]

Short stories

De Lint also scripted several comic books for Barry Blair's Aircel Publishing in the mid-1980s.

His short story, "The Sacred Fire", was made into a short film by Peter Billingsley and Robert Meyer Burnett in 1994. [22] Originally set on and near the campus of Butler University, the setting was changed to Beverly Hills for the film. It was also adapted as an episode of The Hunger in January 2000.

Review columns

De Lint writes a regular review column called "Books to Look For" for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction . [23]

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Powers</span> American science fiction and fantasy author (born 1952)

Timothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. His first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates (1983), which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages. His other written work include Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985), Last Call (1992), Expiration Date (1996), Earthquake Weather (1997), Declare (2000), and Three Days to Never (2006). Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1987 novel On Stranger Tides served as inspiration for the Monkey Island franchise of video games and was optioned for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Swanwick</span> American science fiction author (born 1950)

Michael Swanwick is an American fantasy and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s.

Ian R. MacLeod is a British science fiction and fantasy writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Crowley (author)</span> American writer, primarily speculative fiction (born 1942)

John Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction. He has also written essays. Crowley studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer.

<i>Gardens of the Moon</i> Book One of Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steve Erikson

Gardens of the Moon, published on April 1, 1999, is the first of ten novels in Canadian author Steven Erikson's high fantasy series the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Vess</span> American fantasy and comics artist

Charles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comics artist who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His influences include British "Golden Age" book illustrator Arthur Rackham, Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, and comic-strip artist Hal Foster, among others. Vess has won several awards for his illustrations. Vess' studio, Green Man Press, is located in Abingdon, VA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlín R. Kiernan</span> American author (born 1964)

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American paleontologist and writer of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including 10 novels, series of comic books, and more than 250 published short stories, novellas, and vignettes. Kiernan is a two-time recipient of both the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.

Victoria Strauss is the author of nine fantasy novels for adults and young adults, including the Stone series and the Way of Arata series. She has written hundreds of book reviews for magazines and ezines, including SF Site and Fantasy magazine, and her articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Emshwiller</span> American novelist

Carol Emshwiller was an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes ranging from the Nebula Award to the Philip K. Dick Award. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction". Among her novels are Carmen Dog and The Mount. She has also written two cowboy novels called Ledoyt and Leaping Man Hill. Her last novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Windling</span> American writer and editor

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

<i>Black Gate</i> (magazine)

Black Gate is a fantasy magazine published by New Epoch Press. It was published in glossy print until 2011, after which it shifted online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavie Tidhar</span> Israeli writer

Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.

<i>Moonheart</i> 1984 fantasy novel by Charles de Lint

Moonheart is an urban fantasy novel by Canadian writer Charles de Lint. In the story, Sara Kendell and Jamie Tamson, owners of an antique store, enter the Otherworld, and have to team up with a wizard to rescue two different worlds. Meanwhile, she bonds with the Welsh bard Taliesin.

"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, originally published in the October/November 2008 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and collected in King's 2008 collection Just After Sunset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Gilman</span> British writer

Felix John Gilman is a British writer of fantasy and weird fiction. His 2007 novel Thunderer was nominated for the 2009 Locus Award for Best First Novel, and earned him a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in both 2009 and 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna Clarke</span> British author

Susanna Mary Clarke is an English author known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began Jonathan Strange in 1993 and worked on it during her spare time. For the next decade, she published short stories from the Strange universe, but it was not until 2003 that Bloomsbury bought her manuscript and began work on its publication. The novel became a best-seller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daryl Gregory</span> American science fiction, fantasy and comic book author

Daryl Gregory is an American science fiction, fantasy and comic book author. Gregory is a 1988 alumnus of the Michigan State University Clarion science fiction workshop, and won the 2009 Crawford Award for his novel Pandemonium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Maxey</span> American author

James Maxey is an American author best known for his work in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. He has won the Phobos Award, been nominated for the WSFA Small Press Award, is a 2015 Piedmont Laureate, and reprinted in the Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. In addition to writing fiction, Maxey has also reviewed novels for the online magazine InterGalactic Medicine Show (IGMS), and appeared on panels and taught workshops at numerous conventions on the east coast. He currently lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife, Cheryl.

List of works by or about the British author Ian McDonald.

References

  1. 1 2 Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: About Me". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  2. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: Biography". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  3. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: Music". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Mythic Reading Lists". Mythic Reading Lists. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  5. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint Bibliography: Novels". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  6. ↑ "JoMA Archives: Poetry". JoMA Archives: Poetry. Archived from the original on May 13, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ "MaryAnn Harris". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  8. ↑ "The Meeting". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  9. ↑ "MaryAnn Harris". www.reclectica.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ Crawford, Blair (March 18, 2023). "A tick bite, the Powassan virus, and MaryAnn's struggle". Ottawa Citizen. PostMedia. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  11. 1 2 3 John Robert Colombo "de Lint, Charles" The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye. Oxford University Press 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. York University. October 25, 2011 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t201.e374 Archived August 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine >
  12. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: A Circle of Cats (2003) Description". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 Steven, Lawrence. "Welwyn Wilton Katz and Charles de Lint: New Fantasy as a Canadian Post-colonial Genre." Worlds of Wonder: Readings in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Ed. Jean-François Leroux and Camille R. La Bossière. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2004. 57–72. Print.
  14. 1 2 Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  15. 1 2 Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: Music - Old Blue Truck". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  16. 1 2 Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: Music - Crow Girls EP by MaryAnn Harris". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  17. 1 2 Re-published in Jack of Kinrowan
  18. ↑ Re-published in Spiritwalk
  19. ↑ First published under the pseudonym Samuel M. Key
  20. ↑ 1992 World Fantasy Award nominee
  21. ↑ "Macmillan series: Newford". Macmillan Publishers . Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  22. ↑ "The Sacred Fire (1994)". IMDb . Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  23. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Fantasy and Science Fiction Departments: Books To Look For - Charles de Lint". www.sfsite.com. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  24. ↑ Webmaster, Rodger Turner. "Charles de Lint: Music - The Loon's Lament—Digital Single". www.sfsite.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.