Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer
BornJuly 7, 1968 (1968-07-07) (age 56)
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation
  • Writer
  • author
  • editor
  • publisher
GenreSpeculative fiction
Fantasy
Metafiction
Horror
Science fiction
Weird fiction
Literary movementNew Weird
Notable awardsNebula Award for Best Novel, Shirley Jackson Award, World Fantasy Award
SpouseAnn VanderMeer
Website
www.jeffvandermeer.com Edit this at Wikidata

Jeff VanderMeer (born July 7, 1968[1]) is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with the New Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestselling Southern Reach Series. The series' first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula[2] and Shirley Jackson Awards,[3] and was adapted into a Hollywood film by director Alex Garland.[4] Among VanderMeer's other novels are Shriek: An Afterword and Borne. He has also edited with his wife Ann VanderMeer such influential and award-winning anthologies as The New Weird, The Weird, and The Big Book of Science Fiction.[5]

VanderMeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in America today,"[6] with The New Yorker naming him the "King of Weird Fiction".[7] VanderMeer's fiction is noted for eluding genre classifications[8] even as his works bring in themes and elements from genres such as postmodernism,[9] ecofiction,[10] the New Weird and post-apocalyptic fiction.[11]

VanderMeer's writing has been described as "evocative" and containing "intellectual observations both profound and disturbing,"[12] and has been compared with the works of Jorge Luis Borges,[12][13] Franz Kafka, and Henry David Thoreau.[7]

  1. ^ "Summary Bibliography: Jeff VanderMeer". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on February 1, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  2. ^ "SFWA Nebula Award Winners Announced (2014)". June 6, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  3. ^ "2014 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  4. ^ McNary, Dave (October 31, 2014). "'Annihilation' Movie Gains Momentum at Paramount with Alex Garland (EXCLUSIVE)". variety.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  5. ^ "2017 Locus Awards Winners Archived June 25, 2017, at the Wayback Machine," Locus Magazine, June 24, 2017.
  6. ^ "Jeff VanderMeer entry, Contemporary Authors Online, 2016," Gale Biography in Context, accessed September 1, 2017.
  7. ^ a b "The Weird Thoreau Archived November 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine" by Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, January 14, 2015.
  8. ^ "Starred review of Borne by Jeff VanderMeer Archived November 4, 2018, at the Wayback Machine," Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2017.
  9. ^ "Review of City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer," Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2002.
  10. ^ "There’s No Escape From Contamination Above the Toxic Sea Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine" by Wai Chee Dimockmay, The New York Times Book Review, May 5, 2017.
  11. ^ "Jeff VanderMeer Amends the Apocalypse Archived November 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine" by Laura Miller, The New Yorker, April 24, 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Starred review of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer Archived November 4, 2018, at the Wayback Machine," Publishers Weekly, December 23, 2013.
  13. ^ "SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD BY JEFF VANDERMEER Archived September 2, 2017, at the Wayback Machine," Believermag.com, Sept. 2006, accessed June 26, 2017