Kate Wilhelm

Life

Katie Gertrude Meredith was born in Toledo, Ohio, daughter of Jesse and Ann Meredith. She graduated high school in Louisville, Kentucky, and worked as a model, telephone operator, sales clerk, switchboard operator, and underwriter for an insurance company.

She married first in 1947 to Joseph Wilhelm, and had two sons. The couple divorced in 1962, and Wilhelm married again to Damon Knight in 1963. She and her husband lived in Eugene, Oregon, until 2002, the time of his death, and she continues living there.

Career

Her first published short fiction was "The Pint-Size Genie" in the October 1956 issue of Fantastic, edited by Paul W. Fairman (assisted by Cele Goldsmith, who was responsible for looking at unsolicited submissions to the magazine). The next year, her first accepted story, "The Mile-Long Spaceship", was published in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, and ten of her speculative fiction stories were published during 1958 and 1959. Her debut novel was a murder mystery, More Bitter Than Death (Simon & Schuster, 1963), and her science fiction novel debut, The Clone (1965) by Wilhelm and Theodore L. Thomas, was a finalist for the annual Nebula Award.

Her work has been published in Quark/, Orbit, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov's Science Fiction, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Cosmopolitan.

She and her second husband, Damon Knight, mentored many authors and helped to establish the Clarion Writers Workshop and the Milford Writer's Workshop. Since his death in 2002, Wilhelm has continued to host monthly workshops, as well as lecturing at other events.

Recognition

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Wilhelm in 2003, its eighth class of two deceased and two living writers.

In 2009, she received one of three inaugural Solstice Awards from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (founded by Knight in 1965), which recognize "significant impact on the science fiction or fantasy landscape".

The Nebula Award trophy was designed for the first awards by J. A. Lawrence, based on a sketch by Wilhelm.

She also won a few annual genre awards for particular works:

The Hugo- and Locus Award-winning novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang was also a finalist for the Nebula Award, winner of the short-lived Jupiter Award from science fiction instructors, and third place for the academic John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

In 2016, the SFWA renamed the Solstice Award to the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award.

Barbara Holloway mysteries

Holloway is an attorney in Eugene, Oregon. She and her semi-retired lawyer father, Frank Holloway, solve mysteries that combine detective fiction with courtroom drama.

Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn mysteries

Meiklejohn is a former arson detective turned private investigator. His wife, Leidl, is a professional psychologist. Together they solve cases.

Collections

Short Stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Standalone mystery/suspense novels

Non-fiction

Poems

Editor