Lynne M Thomas

Biography

Thomas lives in DeKalb, Illinois with her husband, Michael Damian Thomas and both are Doctor Who fans. Thomas has degrees in French and comparative literature from Smith College and a master's in library science from the University of Illinois. She and her husband have one daughter, Caitlin, who has Aicardi syndrome. Michael is a full-time caregiver to Caitin.

Work

Thomas has been the head of rare books and special collections at Northern Illinois University (NIU) since 2004. In her position as an archivist, she is in charge of the personal papers of over 75 science fiction authors such as Lois McMaster Bujold, Jack McDevitt, Fred Saberhagen, Eric Flint, Cherie Priest, Catherynne M. Valente, Patricia Wrede, Sharon Shinn, Ann Leckie, Elizabeth Bear, Tamora Pierce, Terri Windling, and Kage Baker, and the organizational archives of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The collection also consists of "dime novel" science fiction books and children's literature. One of the most interesting items in the collection is an "unused 'barf bag'" covered with an author's notes. In addition to curating literary papers, Thomas is also interested in archiving digital ephemera. She also highlights the special collections at NIU by creating displays based on a theme, such as gender and identity.

Beginning in 2011, Thomas was the Editor-in-Chief of the Hugo Award-nominatedApex Magazine, a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine, taking over as editor with issue 30 and concluding her term with issue 55 in 2013. It was during her time at Apex that Thomas edited Rachel Swirsky's award-winning story "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love."

Thomas is very involved in Doctor Who fandom, though she remembers a time when the television show wasn't something most Americans knew about. She was a co-editor on Chicks Dig Time Lords, a Doctor Who anthology. The anthology has its roots among Thomas's friends who were visiting together in Chicago and who owned a publishing house, Mad Norwegian Press. It was Thomas's first anthology and was well received for "treating women's experiences with fandom seriously." Chicks Dig Time Lords won a Hugo Award, marking the first time in Hugo history that a nonfiction book about fictional media has won in any category. In January 2013, she became part of Verity!,an all-female hosted Doctor Who podcast.

Another book that was nominated for the Hugo Awards was Chicks Dig Comics (with Sigrid Ellis). Chicks Dig Comics is a feminist take on the world of fandom surrounding comic books. She won a second and third Hugo Award for her participation in the SF Squeecast podcast with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Catherynne M. Valente and David McHone-Chase, and was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fancast for a third time with Verity!.

In 2014, Lynne and Michael Thomas decided to go back to magazine editing. Thomas is currently the co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine with her husband. Uncanny Magazine won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, and its issue 2 story "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) is a 2016 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and finalist for the Locus Award for Best Novelette and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Awards