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Geoff Ryman

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Geoff Ryman
Geoff Ryman at Åcon 2010.
Geoff Ryman atÅcon2010.
BornGeoffrey Charles Ryman
1951 (age 72–73)
Canada
OccupationAuthor, actor, teacher
NationalityCanadian
GenreScience fiction,fantasy,historical fiction,LGBT literature
Literary movementMundane science fiction
Notable worksThe Child Garden
Was
Air

Geoffrey Charles Ryman(born 1951) is a Canadian writer ofscience fiction,fantasy,slipstreamandhistorical fiction.

Biography[edit]

Ryman was born in Canada and moved to the United States at age 11. He earned degrees in History and English atUCLA,then moved to England in 1973, where he has lived most of his life.[1][2]He is gay.[1]

In addition to being an author, Ryman started a web design team for theUK governmentat theCentral Office of Informationin 1994.[3]He also led the teams that designed the first official British Monarchy and 10 Downing Street websites, and worked on the UK government's flagship website direct.gov.uk.[3]

Works[edit]

Ryman says he knew he was a writer "before [he] could talk", with his first work published in his mother's newspaper column at six years of age.[4] He is best known for his science fiction; however, his first novel was the fantasyThe Warrior Who Carried Life(1985), and his revisionist fantasy ofThe Wizard of Oz,Was...(1992), has been called "his most accomplished work".[2]

Much of Ryman's work is based on travels toCambodia.The first of these,The Unconquered Country(1986), was winner of theWorld Fantasy Award[5]andBSFA Award.His novelThe King's Last Song(2006) was set both in theAngkor Watera and the time afterPol Potand theKhmer Rouge.[3]

Ryman has written, directed and performed in several plays based on works by other writers.

He was guest of honour atNovaconin 1989 and has twice been a guest speaker atMicrocon,in 1994 and in 2004.[6][7][8]He was also the guest of honour at the national Swedish science fiction conventionSweconin 2006,[9]atGaylaxicon2008,[10]atWiscon2009,[11]and atÅcon2010.[12]An article by Wendy Gay Pearson on Ryman's novelThe Child Gardenwon the British Science Fiction Foundation's graduate essay award and was published in a special issue ofFoundationon LGBT science fiction edited by Andrew M. Butler in 2002.[13]Ryman's works were also the subject of a special issue ofExtrapolationin 2008, with articles dealing withAir, The Child Garden, Lust,andWas,in particular. Neil Easterbrook's article in this special issue, "'Giving An Account of Oneself': Ethics, Alterity, Air"[14]won the 2009Science Fiction Research Association Pioneer Awardfor best published article on science fiction (this award has since been renamed the SFRA Innovative Research Award). The issue includes an interview with Geoff Ryman by Canadian speculative fiction writerHiromi Goto.[15]The introduction to the special issue, by Susan Knabe and Wendy Gay Pearson, also responds to Ryman's call for Mundane science fiction.[16]

Mundane science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction focusing on stories set on or near the Earth, with a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written. The Mundane SF movement was founded in 2002 during theClarion Workshopby Ryman and others.[17]In 2008 a Mundane SF issue ofInterzonemagazine was published, guest-edited by Ryman,Julian Toddand Trent Walters.[18]

Ryman has lectured at the University of Manchester since at least 2007; as of 2022 he is an Honorary Senior Lecturer inCreative WritingforUniversity of Manchester's English Department, where in 2011 he won the Faculty Students' Teaching Award for the School of Arts, History and Culture.[19]

As of 2008 he was at work on a new historical novel set in the United States before theirAmerican Civil War.[3][needs update]

Partial bibliography[edit]

Main article:Geoff Ryman bibliography

Novels[edit]

Collections[edit]

Awards[edit]

Main article:List of awards and nominations received by Geoff Ryman

References[edit]

  1. ^ab"Geoff Ryman: The Mundane Fantastic".Locus.January 2006.
  2. ^abEncy fantasy
  3. ^abcd"Geoff Ryman (Centre for New Writing, The University of Manchester)".Arts.manchester.ac.uk. Archived fromthe originalon 31 August 2013.Retrieved20 July2013.
  4. ^Reed, Kit (7 August 2004)."Geoff Ryman interviewed - infinity plus non-fiction".Infinityplus.co.uk.Retrieved20 July2013.
  5. ^World Fantasy Convention."Award Winners and Nominees".Archived fromthe originalon 1 December 2010.Retrieved4 February2011.
  6. ^Ansible #199,February 2004
  7. ^Ansible #79,February 1994
  8. ^John Grant: Gulliver Unravels: Generic Fantasy and the Loss of Subversion – infinity plus non-fiction
  9. ^Johan Anglemark."Recent news".Imagicon. Archived fromthe originalon 11 August 2010.Retrieved20 July2013.
  10. ^[1]Archived15 September 2008 at theWayback Machine
  11. ^"WisCon - The World's Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention".Wiscon.info.Retrieved20 July2013.
  12. ^"GoH".Åcon. 7 August 2009.Retrieved20 March2010.
  13. ^Pearson, Wendy Gay. "Science Fiction as Pharmacy: Plato, Derrida, Ryman."Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction85 (2002): 66-75.
  14. ^Easterbrook, Neil (2008). """Giving an Account of Oneself ": Ethics, Alterity, Air."".Extrapolation.49(2): 240–26–.doi:10.3828/extr.2008.49.2.6.
  15. ^Goto, Hiromi. "An email conversation with Geoff Ryman."Extrapolation49.2 (2008): 195-205.
  16. ^Knabe, Susan, and Wendy Gay Pearson. "Introduction: Mundane Science Fiction, Harm and Healing the World."Extrapolation (pre-2012)49.2 (2008): 181-195.
  17. ^"Geoff Ryman: The Mundane Fantastic: Interview excerpts".Locus.January 2006.Retrieved23 September2007.
  18. ^Andy Cox (3 May 2008)."Interzone 216: Special Mundane-SF issue".TTA Press.
  19. ^"Geoff Ryman".University of Manchester.Retrieved7 January2023.
  20. ^"Him".Goodreads.Retrieved3 May2024.
  21. ^ab"2005 Award Winners & Nominees".Worlds Without End.Retrieved17 May2009.
  22. ^abc"1990 Award Winners & Nominees".Worlds Without End.Retrieved17 May2009.
  23. ^Mike Addelman (2012)."Ryman wins one of world's top science fiction prizes".University of Manchester.

External links[edit]

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