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Wikipedia / Bruce Boston

Bruce Boston (July 16, 1943 – November 11, 2024) was an American speculative fiction writer and poet.

Early years

Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. 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.

Writing career

Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times, and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record seven times. 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. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest," received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.

Boston's first two short story collections, Jackbird (1976) and She Comes When You're Leaving & Other Stories (1982) were published by Berkeley Poets' Workshop and Press. BPW&P was run by the Berkeley Poets' Cooperative, whose writing workshops Boston attended in the 1970s after meeting Co-op cofounder Charles Entrekin when they were both working as computer analysts for Pacific Telephone.

Boston has also published 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."

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.

He was the poet guest of honor at the World Horror Convention in 2013.

Personal life

Boston lived in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.

Bibliography

Novels

  • El Guardián de Almas, Spanish-language edition of The Guardener's Tale, La Factoria de Ideas, 2009

Short fiction

  1. Collections

  2. Jackbird. BPW&P, 1976

  3. She Comes When You're Leaving. BPW&P, 1982

  4. Skin Trades, Chris Drumm, 1988

  5. Hypertales & Metafictions. Chris Drumm, 1990

  6. All the Clocks Are Melting (single story booklet), Pulphouse Publishing, 1991

  7. Night Eyes. Chris Drumm, 1993

  8. Dark Tales & Light. Dark Regions, 1999

  9. Masque of Dreams, Wildside, 2001, 2009

  10. Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 1 (ebook), Fictionwise, 2003

  11. Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 2 (ebook), Fictionwise, 2003

  12. Flashing the Dark. Sam's Dot Publishing, 2006

  13. Gallimaufry. Plum White Press, 2021, 2nd edition, Mind's Eye Publications, 2023

  14. Stories

Poetry

  1. Collections

  2. XXO. Maya Press, 1969

  3. Potted Poems. Maya Press, 1970

  4. All the Clock Are Melting. Velocities, 1984

  5. Alchemical Texts. Ocean View, 1985

  6. Nuclear Futures. Velocities, 1987

  7. Time. Titan, 1988

  8. The Nightmare Collector. 2AM Publications, 1989

  9. Faces of the Beast. Starmont House, 1990

  10. Other Voices, Other Worlds (audio tape, music by Jack Poley). Chris Drumm, 1990, (MP3 audio) Telltale Weekly, 2004

  11. Short Circuits (prose poems). Ocean View, 1991

  12. Cybertexts. Talisman, 1991

  13. Accursed Wives. Night Visions, 1993

  14. Specula: Selected Uncollected Poems, 1968-1993. Talisman, 1993

  15. Sensuous Debris: Selected Poems, 1970-1995. Dark Regions, 1995

  16. Conditions of Sentient Life. Gothic Press, 1996

  17. Cold Tomorrows. Gothic Press, 1998

  18. The Complete Accursed Wives, Talisman/Dark Regions, 2000

  19. White Space. Dark Regions, 2001

  20. Quanta: Award Winning Poems. Miniature Sun, 2001

  21. Night Smoke (ebook, with Marge Simon), Miniature Sun & Quixsilver, 2002

  22. Head Full of Strange (ebook). CyberPulp, 2003

  23. Pitchblende. Dark Regions, 2003

  24. Etiquette with Your Robot Wife. Talisman, 2005

  25. Shades Fantastic. Gromagon Press, 2006

  26. Night Smoke (with Marge Simon, expanded print edition of 2002 ebook). Kelp Queen Press, 2007

  27. The Nightmare Collection. Dark Regions, 2008

  28. Double Visions (collaborative poems). Dark Regions, 2009

  29. North Left of Earth. Sam's Dot, 2009

  30. Dark Matters. Bad Moon Books, 2010

  31. Surrealities. Dark Regions, 2011

  32. Anthropomorphisms. Elektrik Milk Bath Press, 2012

  33. Notes from the Shadow City (with Gary William Crawford). Dark Regions, 2012

  34. Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012. Dark Renaissance Books, 2013

  35. Resonance Dark & Light. Eldritch Press, 2015

  36. Sacrificial Nights (with Alessandro Manzetti). Kipple Officina Libraria, 2016

  37. Brief Encounters with My Third Eye: Selected Short Poems 1975-2016. Crystal Lake Publishing, 2016, Korean-language edition, Philyohanchaek, 2021

  38. Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest (with Robert Frazier), Crystal Lake Publishing, 2017

  39. Artifacts. Independent Legions, 2018

  40. Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets. Mind's Eye Publications, 2022

  41. Broadsides and chapbooks

  42. Musings. Eldritch Emu Press, 1988

  43. The Last Existentialist. Chris Drumm, 1993

  44. Confessions of a Body Thief. Talisman, 1998

  45. The Lesions of Genetic Sin. Miniature Sun, 2000

  46. Pavane for a Cyber-Princess (single poem chapbook). Miniature Sun, 2001

  47. In Far Pale Clarity. Quixsilver, 2002

  48. She Was There for Him the Last Time (single poem chapbook). Miniature Sun, 2002

  49. The Crow Is Dismantled in Flight (ebroadside). Miniature Sun, 2003

  50. List of poems

———————

  1. Notes

Major awards and honors

Bram Stoker Award for Poetry Collection

  • 2003 Pitchblende, Dark Regions Press

  • 2006 Shades Fantastic, Gromagon Press

  • 2008 The Nightmare Collection, Dark Regions Press

  • 2010 Dark Matters, Bad Moon Books

Asimov’s Readers Award for Poetry

  • 1989 Old Robots Are the Worst

  • 1993 Curse of the Shapeshifter's Wife

  • 1997 Curse of the SF Writer's Wife

  • 2003 Eight Things Not to Do or Say When a Mad Scientist Moves into Your Neighborhood

  • 2005 Heavy Weather

  • 2007 The Dimensional Rush of Relative Primes

  • 2014 In the Quiet Hour

Rhysling Award for Speculative Poetry (SFPA)

  • 1985 For Spacers Snarled in the Hair of Comets, short

  • 1987 The Nightmare Collector, short

  • 1988 In the Darkened Hours, long

  • 1994 Spacer's Compass, short

  • 1995 Future Present: A Lesson in Expectation, short

  • 1999 Confessions of a Body Thief, long

  • 2001 My Wife Returns as She Would Have It, short

Others

  • 1973 Yaddo Colony Fellow

  • 1976 Pushcart Prize for Fiction for “Broken Portraiture”

  • 1999 Grand Master Award, Science Fiction Poetry Association

  • 2006 Winner of Locus Poll for All-Time Favorite SF/F/H Poem, Return to the Mutant Rain Forest" with Robert Frazier

  • 2013 Poet Guest of Honor, World Horror/Bram Stoker Awards Convention, New Orleans

  • 2023 Dwarf Stars Award, Science Fiction Poetry Association for "In Perpetuity"

References