Brad R. Torgersen

Last updated

Brad R. Torgersen
Brad R. Torgersen in his office (cropped).jpg
Born (1974-04-06) April 6, 1974 (age 50)
OccupationAuthor
Period1992–present
GenreScience fiction
Notable works
Notable awards
Website
bradrtorgersen.com

Brad R. Torgersen (born April 6, 1974) is an American science fiction author whose short stories regularly appear in various anthologies and magazines, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show .

Contents

Torgersen's stories have won the Analog AnLab readers' choice award three different times, and he was a triple finalist in 2012 for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the Hugo Award for best novelette, and the Nebula Award for best novelette. In addition to short fiction, Torgersen has two published novels, including the 2019 Dragon Award winner, A Star-Wheeled Sky . The Who's Who page for Analog magazine lists him as one of the "leading writers in the genre". [1]

In 2015 Torgensen took charge of the Sad Puppies movement, an unsuccessful annual attempt to win awards for a slate of nominees against alleged unfair bias in the voting in the Hugo Awards. He was replaced the following campaign. [2] [3]

Career

Writing

Torgersen was born April 6, 1974. [4] [5] His first public credit was as an unpaid script writer for locally-produced space opera serial Searcher & Stallion, which broadcast on Salt Lake City community radio KRCL FM in the early 1990s. [6] "Footprints" was published in North Seattle Community College's 2002 Licton Springs Review. [7]

In 2009, his story "Exanastasis" won third place in the third quarter Writers of the Future contest. [8] Torgersen's first professional sale occurred shortly thereafter, when editor Stanley Schmidt bought Torgersen's novelette "Outbound" for Analog Science Fiction and Fact , and the story was selected in the Analog AnLab readers' poll for Best Novelette for 2010. [9] His novelette "Ray of Light" was the cover story on the December 2011 issue of Analog and was nominated for both the Nebula Award [10] and the Hugo Award. [11] He was also nominated for the 2012 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Torgersen received two nominations for the 2014 Hugo Awards: for the novella "The Chaplain's Legacy" and the novelette "The Exchange Officers". [12] "The Chaplain's Legacy" also won the 2014 AML Award for Short Fiction. [13] The Chaplain's War, published by Baen Books in October 2014, took his Analog stories "The Chaplain's Assistant" and the AnLab-winning "The Chaplain's Legacy" and expanded them into a fix-up novel. [14] During the 2015 Hugo nomination and voting period, Torgersen led the Sad Puppies movement, [15] which claimed that popular works were often unfairly passed over by Hugo voters in favor of more literary works, or stories with progressive political themes. [16] [17]

He won his third Analog AnLab readers' choice award for the novelette "Life Flight". [18] In December 2018, Baen published A Star-Wheeled Sky , which won the 2019 Dragon Award for "Best Science Fiction Novel". [19] In February 2020 Brad was the Literary Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at the 38th annual Life, the Universe, & Everything professional science fiction and fantasy arts symposium. [20]

US Army Reserve

As of 2015 Torgersen was a chief warrant officer in the United States Army Reserve. [21]

Works

Series

The Chaplain's War

  • The Chaplain's War (October 2014, Baen Books, ISBN   978-1-4767-3685-3), a fix-up novel incorporating these stories:

The Nemesis

A serial space opera story on the Searcher & Stallion radio drama show on KRCL FM. [6]

  1. "The Beginning" (October 1992)
  2. "The Preparation" (October 1992)
  3. "Time for Action" (October 1992)
  4. "A Trap is Sprung" (November 1992)
  5. "Times of Conquest" (November 1992)
  6. "Retaliate and Escape" (November 1992)
  7. "The Price of Freedom" (December 1992)
  8. "Fight or Flight" (December 1992)
  9. "On the Move" (December 1992)
  10. "Desperation" (December 1992)
  11. "Return to Center" (January 1993)
  12. "Battle to the Last" (January 1993)

Waywork Universe

Zenophobia Saga

This series is written with Craig Martelle.

  1. Heretic (December 2021, CMI, ISBN   978-1-953062-30-7)
  2. Messenger (December 2021, CMI, ISBN   978-1-953062-31-4)
  3. Extremist (January 2022, CMI, ISBN   978-1-953062-32-1)

Collections

Anthologies

These are anthologies edited or co-edited by Torgersen.

Short stories

Awards and recognition

Torgersen has been nominated for and won multiple awards for his various works. He is listed on Analog's Who's Who, a short listing of the "leading writers in the genre" who have been published in Analog. [23]

YearOrganizationAward title,
Category
WorkResultRefs
2009 Writers of the Future Third quarter"Exanastasis"3 [8] [24]
2010 Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analog Award,
Best Novelette
"Outbound"Won [9] [25]
2011 Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analog Award,
Best Novelette
"Ray of Light"Nominated [26]
2012 Worldcon Hugo Award,
Best Novelette
"Ray of Light"Nominated [11] [27]
2012 Worldcon John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer Nominated [28]
2012 SFWA Nebula Award,
Best Novelette
"Ray of Light"Nominated [10] [29]
2013 Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analog Award,
Best Novella
"The Chaplain's Legacy"Won [30]
2013 Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analog Award,
Best Novelette
"The Exchange Officers"Nominated [31]
2014 Worldcon Hugo Award,
Best Novelette
"The Exchange Officers"Nominated [32]
2014 Worldcon Hugo Award,
Best Novella
"The Chaplain's Legacy"Nominated [33]
2014 Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analog Award,
Best Novelette
"Life Flight"Won [34]
2014 Association for Mormon Letters AML Awards,
Short Fiction
"The Chaplain's Legacy"Won [13]
2019 Dragon Con Dragon Award, Best Science Fiction Novel A Star-Wheeled Sky Won [19]

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References

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