Iain M. Banks has announced that he has been diagnosed with late-stage gall bladder cancer and states that he is unlikely to live for more than a year. Originally diagnosed with jaundice, later tests revealed the extent of his illness. Banks has married his long-time companion Adele and has announced the cancellation of all future engagements. The author of The Wasp Factory, Feersum Endjinn, and the Culture series, Banks has been announced as the Guest of Honor for the 2014 Worldcon in London. Banks and Loncon have stated that his attendance is unlikely at the convention.
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Author Tananarive Due’s appointment as Cosby Chair for the Humanities at Spelman College has been renewed for the 2013-14 academic year. Due was initially appointed to the chair for a one year appointment in 2012. The Cosby Chair was endowed by Drs. William and Camille Cosby in 1987 and supports professorships in the fine arts, humanities, and the social sciences at the historically African-American college. Candidates are expected to have achieved the pinnacle of success in their careers.
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Author and editor Paul S. Williams (b.1948) died on March 27. Williams founded the music magazine Crawdaddy in 1966 and continued to edit it through 1968. He also edited it from 1993-2003. He became friends with Philip K. Dick and served as Dick’s literary executor for the first decade after Dick’s death. From 1983 to 1992 Williams ran the Philip K. Dick Society with Keith Bowden. Williams also edited the massive republication of all Theodore Sturgeon’s short fiction by North Atlantic Press. Williams was injured in a 1995 bicycle accident and eventually began to suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Author Jennifer Schwabach died on March 26 after several years of ill health. Schwabach was the author of Dark Winter and Curse’s Captive. Her short ficiton appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, Flytrap, and other places. She also wrote poetry, which was published in Aeon Six and Dreams and Nightmares.
Horror author David B. Silva (b.1950) died on March 13. Silva edited the magazine The Horror Show from 1983 through 1990 and began publishing short fiction in 1983 with the story “Beth” in Eldritch Tales. His short story “The Calling” won the Bram Stoker Award and his collection Through Shattered Glass won the International Horror Guild Award. Silva’s novels included The Disappeared and Child of Darkness. With Paul F. Olson, he edited two horror anthologies.
Horror author Rick Hautala (b.1949) died on March 21. He began publishing novels in 1980 and received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writers of America in 2012. Hautala teamed up with Christopher Golden to write the Body of Evidence series. In addition, he published as A. J. Matthews as well as screenplays.
A dramatization based on Ian R. MacLeod’s alternate history story “Snodgrass” is being made as part of the UK Sky Playhouse. Snodgrass, about a world in which John Lennon left the Beatles before they hit it big. The production, which will air on Sky Arts 1, is based on the first third of the story. The show will be broadcast on April 25. John Lennon will be portrayed by Ian Hart, who previously portrayed Lennon in The Hours and Times (1991) and Backbeat (1994).
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British author James Herbert (b.1943) died on March 20 at his home in Sussex. Herbert wrote his first horror novel, The Rats in 10 weeks when he was 28. It was later made into a film, as were three of his other novels. His novels include ’46, The Survivors, and The Secret of Crickley Hall. In 2010, he was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth and a Grand Master by the World Horror Society.
Cuban science fiction author Angel Arango (b.1926 Ángel José Arango Rodríguez) died on February 19. Arango was one of the founding fathers of modern sf in Cuba. He published his first collection, ¿A dónde van los cefalomos? in 1964 with two more collections appearing in that decade. He also published the story “Un inexperado visitante,” which posited that Jesus was an alien in ancient Judaea. He published a series of four books based on the stories in ¿A dónde van los cefalomos?.
The Horror Writers of America have announced the nominees for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards, to be presented on June 15 at the World Horror Convention in New Orleans, LA.
Superior Achievement in a Novel
- Bottled Abyss, by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
- NightWhere, by John Everson
- The Drowning Girl, by Caitlín R. Kiernan
- The Haunted, by Bentley Little
- Inheritance, by Joe McKinney
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
- Charlotte Markham and the House of Darklings, by Michael Boccacino
- Wide Open, by Deborah Coates
- The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief, by Charles Day
- A Requiem for Dead Flies, by Peter Dudar
- Bad Glass, by Richard Gropp
- Life Rage, by L.L. Soares
Superior Achievement in a YA Novel
- The Diviners, by Libba Bray
- I Hunt Killers, by Barry Lyga
- Flesh & Bone, by Jonathan Maberry
- I Kissed A Ghoul, by Michael McCarty
- The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater
- A Bad Day for Voodoo, by Jeff Strand
Superior Achievement Long Fiction
- Thirty Miles South of Dry County, by Kealan Patrick Burke
- I’m Not Sam, by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee
- Lost Girl of the Lake, by Joe McKinney & Michael McCarty
- The Blue Heron, by Gene O’Neill
- The Fleshless Man, by Norman Prentiss
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
- “Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest,” by Bruce Boston
- “Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens,” by Joe McKinney
- “Righteous,” by Weston Ochse
- “Available Light,” by John Palisano
- “Magdala Amygdala,” by Lucy Snyder
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
- Shadow Show, edited by Mort Castle & Sam Weller
- Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, edited by Eric J. Guignard
- Hell Comes to Hollywood, edited by Eric Miller
- Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology, edited by Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender, & Robert S. Wilson
- Slices of Flesh, edited by Stan Swanson
Superior Achievement in a Collection
- The Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories, by Jonathan Carroll
- New Moon on the Water, by Mort Castle
- Errantry: Strange Stories, by Elizabeth Hand
- The Janus Tree, by Glen Hirshberg
- Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories, by Joyce Carol Oates
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
- Writing Darkness, by Michael Collings
- The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1, by Les Klinger
- Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, by Lisa Morton
- The Undead and Theology, by Kim Paffenroth & John W. Morehead
- Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film, by Kendall R. Phillips
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
- Dark Duet, by Linda Addison & Stephen M. Wilson
- Notes from the Shadow City, by Bruce Boston and Gary William Crawford
- A Verse to Horrors, by Michael Collings
- Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls, by Marge Simon
- Lovers & Killers, by Mary A. Turzillo
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
- The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound, by Cullen Bunn
- Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death, by Terry Moore
- The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone, by Ravi Thornton
- Behind These Eyes, by Peter J. Wacks & Guy Anthony De Marco
- Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, by Rocky Wood & Lisa Morton
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
- The Woman in Black, by Jane Goldman
- The Walking Dead, “Killer Within,” by Sang Kyu Kim
- American Horror Story: Asylum, “Dark Cousin,” by Tim Minear
- The Hunger Games, by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray
- The Cabin in the Woods, by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
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