Linda Addison

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Linda Addison, 2014

Linda D. Addison (* 8. September 1952 in Philadelphia ) is an American science fiction - Fantasy - and horror - writer . Addison is the first African American woman to win the Bram Stoker Award , which she won six times.

biography

Addison was born on September 8, 1952 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . She is the oldest of nine children born to Janet Marie Webster (née Warrick) and J. Decarsta Webster. Addison was inspired by the power of storytelling from an early age. Janet, a housewife who never graduated from high school, entertained her children every night with stories and tales she wrote herself and used her children as characters in her fantastic fables. The stories always ended on a note of mystery and intrigue and inspired young Linda to continue exploring the mysterious and magical, light and dark. Eventually she began to record her feelings, stories and experiences in order to lay the foundation for her later career as a writer.

Addison attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1975 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics.

She moved to New York City with her fiancé Ken Addison in 1975 and started working for RCA Records in the foreign royalties division. The couple married in 1975 and their son Brian was born in 1982.

Addison separated from Ken Addison in 1992 and their divorce was finalized in 1995. Addison began a relationship with horror writer Gerard Houarner in 1995. They married in 2004 but separated in 2010 and divorced in 2015.

She currently lives near Tucson .

Career

In 1996, Addison's short story Little Red in the Hood was published in Tomorrow Speculative Fiction and featured in the annual Best Fantasy and Horror Anthology of 1997.

While at Carnegie Mellon, Addison became a fan of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and began regularly submitting short stories for publication in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine . In New York Is Book Country she met the influential science fiction writer and editor Frederik Pohl . When their discussion turned to publication, Pohl advised, in order to be published in science fiction, "everyone must write a story about how the dinosaurs died". Addison took the advice and turned a short story into a poem entitled Why the Dinosaurs Die ; It was published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1997. Between 1997 and 1999 it was published four times in Asimov's magazine.

In 1997 she published her first science fiction, fantasy, and horror collection of short stories, diary entries, and poems entitled Animated Objects , which includes an introduction by science fiction and fantasy writer Barry N. Malzberg .

African American publisher Sheree Thomas invited African American authors to submit contributions to a collection that became the seminal anthology: Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora . Addison's work was featured along with that of Octavia E. Butler , Samuel R. Delaney , Tananarive Due, and Walter Mosley . Addison's works have now been reprinted regularly in Dark Dreams and Dark Thirst .

Inspired by the change in her life after her marriage breakdown, she created the Bram Stoker Award- winning poetry collection Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Gray Ashes . Addison was the first African American author to win this prestigious award. The first book signing for this collection took place on September 11, 2001 at the Barnes & Noble in Rockefeller Center . The first poem in the collection is titled Fire / Fight , although the collection was derived from Addison's personal writings and reflections prior to the events of September 11th, and critics and fans of the book couldn't help but associate certain topics with current events such as loss, devastation associated with rebirth, reconstruction, and the resilience of the human spirit.

In 2007 she published her third volume of poetry and her second collection, which received the Bram Stoker Award: Being Full of Light, Insubstantial . This emotional tour de force was inspired by events beyond Addison's control. Her mother, Janet, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's , and Addison was strangely drawn into her office on January 1, 2007. She describes the experience as "as something she had never felt before, it was as if a voice came to her in meditation and gently whispered ... 100 poems." The resulting collection was an amalgamation of reprints and new poetry. Addison completed her 100th poem on March 14, 2007.

Addison is a member of the Horror Writers Association and annually attends the Northeastern Writers' Conference (Camp Necon). She has participated in forums with Harlan Ellison , Jack Ketchum, and LA Banks.

Addison was the 2005 "Poet Guest of Honor" at the World Horror Convention.

Her lyrics have been published in Essence Magazine and she is currently the poetry editor for Space and Time Magazine . Addison has participated in Ellen Datlow's Fantastic Fiction Reading series at the KGB Bar in New York City on several occasions .

In March 2012, Addison won her third Bram Stoker Award for How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend , a collection of reprints, new poems and short stories.

In 2014 she won her fourth Bram Stoker Award for The Four Elements , a poetry collection inspired by the classic four-element theory . The book came about after a discussion between Addison and Houarner about female Bram Stoker Prize winners. Addison contacted three Bram Stoker Award winning writers and asked them to choose their "Element". Marge Simon (earth), Rain Graves (water), Charlee Jacob (fire) and Addison (air).

In addition to her anthologies, she wrote a large number of short stories, poems and essays.

Addison has spearheaded numerous creative influences throughout her life, including Edgar Allan Poe , William Shakespeare , James Baldwin , Toni Morrison , Alice Walker , Gil-Scott Heron , Langston Hughes, and David Lynch .

Awards

  • 2002: Bram Stoker Award for Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Gray Ashes for best collection of poems
  • 2008: Bram Stoker Award for Being Full of Light, Insubstantial as the best collection of poems
  • 2012: Bram Stoker Award for How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend as the best collection of poems
  • 2014: Bram Stoker Award for Four Elements (with Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob) as the best collection of poems
  • 2018: Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement
  • 2020: Bram Stoker Award The Place of Broken Things as the best collection of poems

Bibliography (selection)

Story collections

Anthologies

  • The 2002 Rhysling Anthology , SFPA 2002
  • Four Elements , Bad Moon Books 2012, (with Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob and Marge Simon)
  • Sycorax's Daughters , Cedar Grove Publishing 2017, ISBN 978-1-941958-51-3 (with Kinitra D. Brooks and Susana M. Morris)
  • StokerCon 2019 Souvenir Anthology , Horror Writers Association 2019, ISBN 978-1-73280-352-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bram Stoker Award Winner 2006 . Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved on August 18, 2020.
  2. ↑ 2011 Bram Stoker Award . Necon Books.
  3. ↑ Linda Addison-Poet / Writer . Accessed August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Linda D. Addison." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors , Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: Biography, Accessed Jan. 24, 2020
  5. ↑ Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement 2018

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Addison, Linda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Addison, Linda D. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American horror and science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia