Bruce Boston

Last updated
Bruce Boston
Bruce Boston Stoker.jpg
With Bram Stoker Award, 2004
Born1943 (age 8081)
United States
OccupationWriter, poet
Education University of California, Berkeley (BA, MA)
Genre Speculative fiction
Spouse
(m. 2001)

Bruce Boston (born 1943) [1] is an American speculative fiction writer and poet.

Contents

Early years

Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. [2] He received a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965, and an M.A. in 1967. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 2001, where he worked in a variety of occupations, including computer programmer, college professor (literature and creative writing, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California, 1978–82), technical writer, book designer, gardener, movie projectionist, retail clerk, and furniture mover.

According to Boston, he meant to major in math at university and write on the side, but soon found that he was more interested in writing. After being advised by a friend that he should not major in English to become a writer, he decided on economics instead. [3]

Writing career

Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record [4] seven times, [5] and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record seven times. [6] He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, a record four Bram Stoker Awards for solo poetry collections, and the first Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999. [7] His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest, [8] " received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.

Boston has also published [9] more than a hundred short stories and the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener's Tale (the latter a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and Prometheus Award Nominee). His work has appeared widely in periodicals and anthologies, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories Magazine, Analog Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase. Writing in The Washington Post , Paul Di Filippo described his collection Masque of Dreams as containing "nearly two dozen brilliant stories ranging across all emotional and narrative terrains." [10]

Boston has chaired the Nebula Award Novel Jury (SFWA), the Bram Stoker Award Novel Jury, and the Philip K. Dick Award Jury, and served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He has served as fiction and/or poetry editor for a number of publications, including Occident, The Open Cell, Berkeley Poets Cooperative, City Miner, Star*Line and The Pedestal Magazine. [2]

He was the poet guest of honor at the World Horror Convention in 2013. [11] [12]

Personal life

Boston lives in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001. [13]

Bibliography

Novels

Short fiction

Collections
Stories [lower-alpha 1]
TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedNotes
After magic1990EotuDark Regions (1999)Novelette
Houses1991TalismanNovelette

Poetry

Collections
Broadsides and chapbooks
List of poems
TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collected
Birth of an astrophysicist2015Boston, Bruce (April–May 2015). "Birth of an astrophysicist". Asimov's Science Fiction. 39 (4–5): 53.
Tourists from the future2015Boston, Bruce (June 2015). "Tourists from the future". Asimov's Science Fiction. 39 (6): 31.

———————

Notes
  1. Short stories unless otherwise noted.
  2. 1 2 Includes short stories.

Major awards and honors

Bram Stoker Award for Poetry Collection

Asimov’s Readers Award for Poetry

Rhysling Award for Speculative Poetry (SFPA)

Others

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References

  1. Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Bruce Boston (accessed Sept. 18 2013)
  2. 1 2 Diane Severson, Interview with Bruce Boston,Amazing Stories March 15, 2013 (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  3. Amen, John (2002), Writing Speculative Poetry: An Interview with Bruce Boston , retrieved 29 April 2016
  4. Locus, Rhysling Award Tallies Archived May 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  5. Science Fiction Poetry Association, Rhysling archive Archived August 29, 2015, at the Wayback Machine (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  6. The Locus Index to SF Awards: Asimov's Reader Poll Records and Tallies Archived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999 SFPA Grandmaster Archived January 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  8. "Bruce Boston & Robert Frazier | Return to the Mutant Rain Forest". Archived from the original on 2007-07-16. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  9. Internet SF Database, Bruce Boston Summary Bibliography (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  10. Paul di Filippo, review, "Microcosmos: A new Golden Age and a flood of titles from the kind of small publishers that first brought the world sf" Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine , Washington Post, Sunday, April 7, 2002; Page BW13 (accessed Sept. 18, 2013).
  11. Locus Online News, Bruce Boston Joins World Horror Guests of Honor, 10 July 20, 2012 (accessed Sept. 18 2013)
  12. World Horror Convention 2013 GoH Interview #5: Bruce Boston Archived May 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (accessed Sept. 18, 2013)
  13. Bruce Boston Website