Name Edward Bryant Role Fiction writer | ||
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Awards Nebula Award for Best Short Story Nominations Hugo Award for Best Novelette Books Phoenix Without Ashes: Th, Cinnabar, The Jogging Lady, The Baku: Tales of the Nuclear A, Night Visions 4 Similar People Lewis Shiner, Melinda M Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh, Robert R McCammon, Walter Jon Williams | ||
Edward Winslow Bryant Jr. (August 27, 1945 – February 10, 2017) was an American science fiction and horror writer sometimes associated with the Dangerous Visions series of anthologies that bolstered The New Wave. At the time of his death, he resided in North Denver.
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Life and work
Bryant was born in White Plains, New York. However, he was raised on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. He had strong roots in that state attested to in his collection Wyoming Sun. He attended school in Wheatland, Wyoming, and received his MA in English from the University of Wyoming in 1968.
During the 1950s his uncle, a rodeo star, encouraged his love of film. This perhaps ultimately led to his occasional work in screenplays and as an actor. He was in the films The Laughing Dead (1988) and Ill Met by Moonlight (1994). He also wrote screenplays for TV shows on channels from CBS, Lifetime and Disney.
At the beginning of his career he developed an association with Harlan Ellison, which proved longstanding. This led to collaborative efforts such as the novel Phoenix Without Ashes, based on Ellison's pilot script for The Starlost.
His writing career began in 1968 with his attendance at the Clarion Workshop. By 1973, he had gained acclaim for stories with a conversational style that mask rather dark realities.
His short horror story "Dark Angel", which appeared in Kirby McCauley's anthology Dark Forces, featured modern-day witch Angela Black. She reappears as the narrator of Bryant's short novel Fetish.
He won two Nebula awards for his short stories, "Stone" (1978) and "giANTS" (1979). He was mostly known as a writer of short fiction; however, he also wrote poetry, nonfiction, reviews, criticism, and edited an e-zine.
When Bryant moved to Denver in 1972, he founded the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop, which continues today, and has produced a number of notable writers, including Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, John Dunning, Wil McCarthy, Bruce Holland Rogers, Dan Simmons, and Connie Willis. Bryant was a senior editor of Wormhole Books. In addition, he facilitated a number of other writing workshops over the years for writers ranging in skill and experience from amateur to professional.
Edward Bryant served as Toastmaster for Denvention II, the 1981 Worldcon, as well as World Fantasy Convention, ArmadilloCon, TusCon, and Death Equinox. He also chaired (and otherwise was a special guest at) multiple years of the World Horror Convention.
Illness and death
In 2010, various writers & editors including Melanie Tem and Ellen Datlow set up a Crowd-funding page to help Bryant deal with financial emergencies brought on by his ongoing fight against the effects of Type 1 Diabetes.
Bryant died at his home in Colorado on February 10, 2017, after a long illness. He was 71.