Below is a listing of members of our community who have died since the last In Memoriam list was compiled for New Orleans last year (since October 4, 2022). If you know of someone you believe should be included, please let us know. Names received after September 30 may not appear in the souvenir book.
2022
Author Herbert Crowder (b.1925) died on September 2. Crowder was the author of Ambush at Osirak, Weatherhawk, and Missile Zone.
Academic Brian Catling (b.1948) died on September 26 from small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. Catling published The Vorrh and its sequels as well as the novels Earwig and Hollow. He was also an artist with many exhibitions to his credit and was a professor of fine arts at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.
Author and illustrator Jill Pinkwater (b.1941) died on October 4. Pinkwater co-wrote two stories in the Werewolf Club with her husband, Daniel Pinkwater. She also provided cover and interior art for many novels.
Author Peter Robinson (b.1950) died on October 4. Best known for his crime novels, he also wrote the fantasy novel Caedmon’s Song and some short fiction, also.
Author Feliks W. Kres (b.Witold Chmielecki, 1966) died on October 13. Kres’ work was all published in Polish, beginning with his debut story, “Król Gór” in 1991. He also wrote five novels and additional short stories. He edited multiple magazines aimed at young writers.
Author Delia Rossi (b.1980) died on October 14. Rossi was the author of several romantic fantasy novels.
Author Jay Wilburn died in mid-October following a massive stroke. Wilburn was the co-author of Hollywood Hellmouth and The Enemy Held Near as well as the author of Chivalry Is Undead and June from Seattle to Philadelphia. Many of his works were written with Armand Rosamilia.
Author Tom Maddox (b.1945) died on October 18. Maddox published several short stories and the novel Halo. He co-wrote two episodes of The X-Files with William Gibson. Maddox taught at Evergreen State College.
Artist Ned Dameron (b.Edward Palfrey IV, 1943) died on October 20. Dameron worked for Donald M. Grant and Underwood-Miller in the 80s before focusing on TSR in the 1990s. He also provided pieces of art for the NolaCon II Souvenir Book.
Author Anton Donchev (b.1930) died on October 20. Donchev primarily wrote historical novels and screenplays. His foray into genre fiction was the short story “The Return.”
Author Mike Davis (b.1946) died on October 25. Davis wrot the children’s novels Land of the Lost Mammoths and Pirates, Bats, and Dragons. He also taught urban theory and published numerous nonfiction works.
Author Donald R. Marshall (b.1934) died on October 25. Marshall taught humanities at Brigham Young University and published the children’s novel Enchantress of Crumbledown.
Author Andrey Marytanov (b.1973) died on October 30. Martyanov published numerous novels, including Conan pastiches, under the pseudonym Olaf Bjorn Loknit, although he initially claimed they were translations. He has also used the pseudonyms Utley Gunnarsson, Kirk Monroe, Gunther Reichert, as well as his own name.
Author Rico Gehrke (b.1966) died on November 2. Gehrke began publishing genre fiction in 2014 with “Testament einer Außerirdischen.” Over the next seven years, he published an additional 15 short stories, three of which were nominated for the Kurd Laßwitz Preis.
Agent Henry Morrison (b.) died on November 2. Morrison’s clients included Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, Patricia Keneally-Morrison, Dean Koontz, and Eric Van Lustbader. He started at the Scott Meredith Agency before branching out on his own.
Bookseller Michael Luckman died on November 4. In 1977, Luckman co-founded Forbidden Planet bookstore with Mike Lake and Nick Landau.
Author Anne Fakhouri (b.1974) died on November 9. Fakhouri has also published under the names Elie Grimes and Hannah Bennett. Her novel Le clairvoyage won Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.
Editor Sue Strong Hassler (b.1938) died on November 9 from complications from back surgery and COVID. In collaboration with her husband, Donald, Hassler co-edited the correspondence between Arthur Machen and Montgomery Evans.
Bookseller Erik Arthur died on November 16. Arthur bought out Dave Gibson to become the co-owner of London’s Fantasy Centre bookstore and managed the store with partner Ted Ball until it closed in 2009.
Author David Sherman (b.1958) died on November 16. Sherman co-wrote the Starfist series as well as other novels with Dan Cragg. He wrote the first two novels of the 18th Race series and Keith R.A. DeCandido finished the final novel in the series for him. His solo novels also includes the Demontech series and The Hand of Tyr.
Author Anne Harris (b.1964) died on November 17 following a massive stroke. Harris published the novels Accidental Creatures, which won the first Spectrum Award, Inventing Memory, and the Libyrinth series. Their short story “Still Life with Boobs” was nominated for the Nebula Award. They taught at Seton Hill University. Harris also published under the names Jessica Freely and Pearl North.
Author Marcus Sedgwick (b.1968) died on November 17. Sedgwick focused on the teen and children’s markets with his titles including Floodland, My Swordhand is Singing, The Monsters We Deserve, and Midwinterblood. He also worked as a bookseller and a publisher.
Author Greg Bear (b.1951) died on November 19 following a massive stroke. Bear was the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Moving Mars and “Blood Music.” He served as President of SFWA from 1988-90 and was the Worldcon Guest of Honor in 2001. In the 1970s, he helped found what became the San Diego Comic-Con International.
M.E. Kerr (b.Marijane Meaker,1927) died on November 21. Kerr’s genre works included Shoebag, The Shuteyes, and Little Little. She also published under the names Mary James and Vin Packer. Kerr was often credited for launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre.
Author Hans Magnus Enzensberger (b.1929) died on November 24. In addition to working as a critic, Enzensberger published the novels Der Zahlenteufel and Wo warst du, Robert?, both of which were translated into English.
Author Ray Nelson (b.Radell Faraday Nelson, 1931) died on November 30. Nelson began publishing science fiction in 1963 with “Turn Off the Sky.” His story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” was adapted into the film They Live. His first novel, The Ganymede Takeover, was co-written with Philip K. Dick. When Nelson was a teenager, he introduced the propeller beanie to fandom. He is the recipient of a Rotsler Award and has been inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame.
Author Jay Faulkner committed suicide on December 1. Faulkner ran the small press Four Parts Press and was the author of several short stories since 2010.
Artist Richard Bober (b.1943) died on December 10. Bober’s work appeared on the covers of numerous novels beginning in the 1970s, including cover art for several of Gene Wolfe’s novels, Kara Dalkey’s Blood of the Goddess series, and Susan Shwartz’s Shards of Empire.
Artist Peter Goodfellow (b.1950) died on December 11. Goodfellow provided covers for Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Olaf Stapledon in the 70s and 80s before turning his attention to landscapes
Kim Mohan (b.1949) died on December 11. Mohan serves as editor for gaming magazines Ares and Dragon and later fiction magazine Amazing Stories. He edited two Amazing Stories anthologies and wrote the Cyborg Commando trilogy with Pamela O’Neill.
Author and artist Graham Oakley (b.1929) died on December 19. Oakley was the author and illustrator of the children’s The Church Mouse series. He also did the cover for Tanith Lee’s The Dragon Hoard.
Author Marjorie Nelson (b.1939) died on December 29. Nelson published the Star Trek novel Parns and Symbols in 1985 under the byline Majliss Larson.
Author Frank Lauria (b.1935) died in December. Lauria was the author of the Dr. Owen Orient series as well as the novels End of Days, The Foundling, and Dark City. He wrote the novelization for Riddick: Pitch Black.
2023
Author Suzy McKee Charnas (b.1939) died on January 2. Charnas was the author of The Vampire Tapestry and The Holdfast Chronicles series. Charnas won the Nebula Award for “Unicorn Tapestry” and the Hugo for “Boobs.” She won the Tiptree Award three times.
Author Cai Emmons (b.1951) died on January 2. Emmons published the novels Weather Woman, Sinking Islands, and Unleashed.
Publisher David Gold (b.1936) died on January 4. Gold headed Compact Books, which published New Worlds and Science Fantasy/Impulse.
Author Fay Weldon (b.1931) died on January 4. Weldon’s genre novels included The Cloning of Joanna May, Calchot Crescent, Death of a She-Devil, and Puffball.
Author Aleksey Slapovsky (b.1957) died on January 8. Slapovsky wrote a couple of children’s fantasies and often incorporated fantastic elements into his other novels.
Editor Svetlana Tulina (b.1968) died on January 8. Tulina edited anthologies of Russian speculative fiction and published The Tale of Wrong Assumptions, The Tale of the Golden Bird, and The Tale of the Black Demon of Red Sands, among other stories.
Author Hitoshi Yoshioka (b.1960) died on January 13. His novels included Shin Shōwa Yūgekitai, Kasei no Hijikata Toshizō, and Nangun Kihei Taii John Carter. Many of his works were adapted for anime and he also worked in the anime field.
Author Stepan Kaymanov (b.1979) died on January 17. His novels include Darkness and Fire and Practical Anti-magic, among others.
Author Paul LaFarge (b.1970) died on January 18 from cancer. His genre novels including The Artists of the Missing, Haussmann, or the Distinction, and The Night Ocean.
Author Ted Bell (b.1946) died on January 20. Best known for writing thrillers, Bell wrote the Nick of Time and The Time Pirate YA novels featuring Nick McIver.
Author Anna Jane (b.Anna Kapranova, 1988) died on February 1. Jane co-wrote the YA novel Net, detka, eto fantastika with Yekaterina Vasina. Kane also wrote the Music Lovelace series and the Heavenly Music series.
Author Andrey Lyovkin (b.1954) died on February 13. In addition to his own works, Lyovkin translated Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Clifford D. Simak into Russian.
Author Evgeny Shchepetnov (b.1961) died on February 14. His novels included military science fiction, space opera, time travel books, and urban fantasy.
Author Igor Bereg (b.Igor Pidorenko, 1953) died on February 21. Bereg wrote using both his Pidorenko and Bereg bylines, including Vse veshchi mira Fantastika.
Editor and publisher John D. Teehan (b.1967) died on February 23. Teehan was the publisher of Merry Blacksmith Press and briefly served as the editor of the SFWA Bulletin. He published a handful of short stories and poems.
Author Christopher Fowler (b.1953) died on March 2. Fowler was the author of the BFA winning novel Full Dark House, the collection Old Devil Moon and the short stories “American Waitress” and “Wage Slaves.”
Agent Val Smith (b.1951) died on March 2. Smith represented Madeline Robins, Steven Brust, Jane Yolen, and Sherwood Smith.
Author Kenzaburo Oe (b.1935) died on March 3-Not primarily a genre author, Oe’s works often included fantasy themes and some of his work was overtly genre, such as “Aghwee the Sky Monster.” In 1994, Oe was award the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Author John Jakes (b.1932) died on March 11. Although Jakes became best known for his historical novels, he got his start writing fantasies, such as Brak the Barbarian and the Dark Gate series. Some of his fantasy was included in DAW Books The Best of John Jakes.
Author Dubravka Ugresic (b.1949) died on March 17. Ugresic is the author of “Baba Yaga Laid and Egg,” which won the 2010 Tiptree Award. Originally published in Croatian, many of Ugresic’s stories have been translated into English.
Author Michael Reaves (b.1950) died on March 20. Reaves wrote the novels Dragonworld, Hellstar, Street Magic, and several media tie-ins. He was also a screenwriter and wrote Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and episodes of several animated series.
Author Eric Brown (b.1960) died on March 21. Brown is a two time BSFA winner and the author of the Bengal Station series and the Helix series. He was a longtime SF reviewer for the Guardian.
Publisher John Hale (b.1932) died in late March. Hale took over his father’s publishing house in 1956 and expanded its line to include genre fiction, including Robert Bloch.
Author Roger Taylor (b.1938) died on March 24. Taylor was the author of the Chronicles of Haklan series, which began in 1988, as well as several related works. He also wrote the novels The Keep and Travellers.
Author D.M. Thomas (b.1935) died on March 26. Thomas wrote the novels The Flute Player, Birthstone, and The White Hotel, which was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. He also wrote the four book Russian Quartet.
Fan and bookseller Bo Erikkson (b.1953) died in February or March. Erikkson became active in Swedish fandom in the 1970s, focusing on science fiction and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Author LJ Hachmeister (b.1980) died on April 5 following surgery. Hachmesiter was the author of the Triotion Universe novels and edited the anthologies Parallel Worlds: The Heroes Within and Instinct.
Author Rachel Pollack (b.1945) died on April 7. Pollack was the author of Unquenchable Fire, which won a Clarke Award, and its sequel Temporary Agency. Her novel Godmother Night won the World Fantasy Award. Pollack also wrote for comics and numerous non-fiction books, including works on Tarot, including creation of her own deck.
Editor Joseph Wrzos (b.1929) died on April 7. Wrzos served as managing editor of Amazing Stories from 1965-1967, using the professional name Joseph Ross. He also edited books on Hannes Bok and August Derleth and worked with Sam Moskowitz on Into the Sun and Other Stories.
Author Anne Perry (b.Juliet Hulme, 1938) died on April 10. Best known for mystery novels, Perry wrote Tathea and Come Armegeddon as well as some genre short fiction. As a teenager, Hulme helped murder her best friend’s mother and served five years in prison.
Scholar Mike Foster (b.1947) died on April 12. Foster was a pioneer of teaching Tolkien at the university level when he taught fantasy at Illinois Central College in 1974 and four years later introduced a course focusing on Tolkien.
Author Angus McAllister (b.1943 died on April 18. McAllister wrote The Krugg Syndrome, The Canongate Strangler, and The Cyber Puppets. He also edited Mond Boggling Science Fiction.
Author Lee Harding (b.1937) died on April 19. Harding was the author of The Weeping Sky, Waiting for the End of the World, and Return to Tomorrow. He edited the anthologies Beyong Tomorrow, The Altered, and Rooms of Paradise. Harding won Ditmars for the stories “Dancing Gerontius” and “Fallen Spaceman.”
Author Kate Saunders (b.1960) died on April 21. Saunders published the Belfry Witches series, the Oz and Luly series, and several additional young adult novels. Her Five Children on the Western Front was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2016.
Game designer Bard Bloom (b.1963) died on April 29. Bloom created the World Tree RPG with their wife, Vicki, and published the novel A Marriage of Insects and the shot story “In the Restaurant of Doom.”
Illustrator Gerald Rose (b.1935) died on May 5. Rose illustrated many children’s books, including Ted Hughes’ Nessie the Mannerless Monster. He was the youngest person to win the Kate Greenaway medal, which he received for the illustrations in Old Winkle and the Seagulls, written by his wife.
Author Lev Askerov (b.1940-2023) died on April 30. Askerov was the author of Chelovek’s Togo Sveta and three other science fiction novel, as well as several non-genre books.
Translator Ion Doru Brana (b.1943) died on May 9. Brana translated the works of George R.R. Martin, Frank Herbert, Harlan Ellison, and others into Romanian.
Artist Russ Nicholson died on May 10. Nichols was a freelance illustrator and worked on several games, including The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and TSR’s Field Folio. He was active in illustration for Warhammer and worked as a cover artist for many British publishers.
Author Inger Sandberg (b.1930) died on May 16. Sandberg wrote children’s books, including Laban the Little Spook and the Little Anna and the Tall Uncle books. Her works were often illustrated by her husband, Lasse.
Author Rajnar Vajra (b.1947) died on May 18. Vajra began publishing in 1997 in Absolute Magnitude. His novel Shootout at the Nokai Corral was published in Analog and his Doctor Alien collection includes three linked stories. His novel Opening Wonders was published in May.
Author Martis Amis (b.1949) died on May 19. His genre novels included Dead Babies, London Fields, and Time’s Arrow. His first novel received the Somerset Maugham Award and he later earned the James Tair Black Memorial Award. He was a screenwriter on the film Saturn 3.
Author Nick Wood (b.1961) died in early May. Wood was the author of the collection Learning Monkey and Crocodile. His novel Azanian Bridges was nominated for the BSFA, Campbell Memorial, Nommo, and Sidewise awards and his second novel, Water Must Fall, was nominated for the BSFA and Nommo awards.
Publisher Sue Freestone (b.1945) died on June 5. Freestone worked for Heinemann, Hutchinson and Quercus and worked with Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry, and Robert Harris.
Author Brian Mooney (b.1940) died on June 11. Mooney published several short stories, including “The Tomb of Priscus” and “The Waldteufel Affair,” as well as poetry. In 1977, he published the chapbook The Guardians at the Gates. He was a charter member of the British Fantasy Society.
Author Cormac McCarthy (b.1933) died on June 13. McCarthy is the author of the post-apocalyptic novel The Road. His non-genre works include No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses.
Editor Robert Gottlieb (b.1931) died on June 14. Gottlieb worked for Simon & Schuster, Knopf, and The New Yorker. His authors including Ray Bradbury, Anthon Burgess, Michael Crichton, and Doris Lessing. He edited Joseph Heller’s Catch-18 and suggested Heller change the title to Catch-22.
Author Nicky Singer (b.1956) died on June 17. Singer wrote the YA novels The Innocent’s Story, GemX, The Survival Game, and Knight Crew. Her debut, Feather Boy was adapted for tv and a musical.
Author Sydney J. Van Scyoc (b.Sydney Brown 1939) died on June 17. Van Scyoc began publishing in 1962 in Galaxy. Her first novel was Saltflower and she followed it up with Starmother, Darkchild, and Deepwater Dreams, among others. She stepped away from writing for several years.
Author and editor Michael A. Banks (b.1951) died on June 19. Banks was the co-author of The Odysseus Solution with Dean R. Lambe, and Joe Mauser: Mercenary from Tomorrow with Mack Reynolds. He served as a freelance editor for Baen and was active in the CFG. He also wrote under the name Alan Gould.
Editor Charles P. Zaglanis died in mid June. Zaglanis was the editor on Elder Signs Press and White Cat Publications. He edited the anthologies Airships & Automatons, Dark Horizons, and Street Majick.
Author Clifford Royal Johns died on June 23. Johns was the author of the novels Walking Shadow and Velocity Blues as well as several short stories. He was a frequent participant in Windcon, Capricon, and Chicon.
Author Angel Wagenstein (b.1922) died on June 29. Wagenstein wrote the novel Eolomea, which was turned into an East German film of the same title. His other novels included Farewell, Shangai and Isaac’s Torah. He was also a screenwriter.
Actor Alan Arkin (b.1934) died on June 30. Best known for his appearance in Catch-22, he appeared in The Last Unicorn, Edward Scissorhands, The Rocketeer, and Gattaca. He was also an author, with stories appearing in Galaxy and F&SF.
Editor Patrick Lucien Price died in early July. Price worked as a games editor on the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set and later worked on the editorial staff for Dragon, Strategy & Tactics and as editor of Amazing Stories from 1986-1991.
Fan Charles E. Noad (b.1947) died on July 13. Noad was active in the UK Tolkien Society and proofread most of Tolkien’s poshutmous works after becoming friends with Christopher Tolkien. He wrote several articles on Tolkien’s works.
Editor Lech Jeczmyk (b.1936) died on July 17. Jeczmyk translated J.G. Ballard, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Kurt Vonegut into Polish. He also edited the Steps into the Unknown and Rocket Trails anthology series.
Author Allan Scott (b.1952) died on July 17 from cancer. Scott co-authored The Ice King and A Spell of Empire, as well as the solo novel The Dragon in Stone. He also edited Sfinx magazine for three years.
Author Juleen A. Brantingham (b.1942) died on July 22. Brantingham began publishing in 1979 with the story “Holly Don’t Tell” and published several stories through 1999, including “Chicken of the Tree” and “A Visit to Dragonland.”
Author Russell H. Greenan (b.1925) died on July 22. Greenan was the author of It Happened in Boston?, The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton, and The Bric-a-Brac Man.
Editor John R. Douglas died on August 3. Douglas worked on the science fiction lines for several different publishers over the years and as an editorial freelancer since 1999. He was active in the World Fantasy Board and is being recognized with a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award this year, which will be accepted by his wife, Ginjer Buchanan.
Author Philippe Tronche (b.1929) died on August 5. Writing as Philippe Curval, he won the Prix Apollo for Cette chere humanite and the Prix Imaginaire for L’homme a rebours and pour son travail d;atnghologiste et de decouvreur de talents.
Author Valery Gayevsky (b.1960) died on August 21. Gayevsky was an active fan and wrote Who’s Who in Crimean SF and Encyclopedia of Crimean SF.
Author Michael D. Toman (b.1949) died in the last week of August. Toman published seven short stories, beginning with “Shards of Divinity” in 1974 and ending with “A Winter Memory” in 1991. He also published Science Fiction Bobliography in 1975 and worked as a librarian.
Bookseller Neal Sofman (b.1948) died on September 6. Sofman ran A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books and Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco, which hosted the reading series SF in SF.
Author Michael F. Flynn (b.1947) died on October 1. Flynn was the author of the Firestar and Spiral Arm series and co-wrote Fallen Angels with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. He won the Sidewise Award for the short story “Quaestiones Super Caelo et Mundo,” won two Prometheus Awards, the Locus, Sturgeon, and Compton Crook Stephen Tall Memorial Awards, and several Anlab polls.